Re: Look at the copyright before changing upstream sources
On Sat, Nov 17, 2001 at 04:12:17PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> 2. Packages in main
> The DFSG say that you must be allowed to make derived works. But the DFSG
> also state that "The license may require derived works to carry a
> different name". If you change the upstream source of such a program
> (e.g. AbiWord, TeX, Metafont) without changing the name it's a clear
> violation of the license.
You could easily argue that merely packaging such a program creates a
derived work (depending on the exact wording of the licence). If that's
the case then the right thing to do is either to seek reasonably
inclusive permission and/or to rename the Debian package from the
beginning.
The expectation is that we can fix bugs in the packages we distribute as
appropriate. What do you do if such a package is in base and we suddenly
realize we have to fix a critical bug and are forced to rename it two
weeks from the planned release? I don't think people ought to have to
worry about that sort of thing once something is in main.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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