[Please keep me in Cc: as I am not subscribed to debian-legal]
On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 06:04:42PM +0200, Bastien ROUCARIÈS wrote:
> Package: src:ruby-gsl
> Severity: serious
> user: debian-qa@lists.debian.org
> usertags: gfdl-invariant
>
> File rdoc/ref.rdoc is under non free license (gfdl with invariant
> sections).
>
> Please ask for relicense, repackage or move to non-free package.
For reference of debian-legal folks, the file rdoc/ref.rdoc in the ruby-gsl
source package contains the following:
# == {}[link:index.html"name="1] Front Matter
# This document describes the modules, classes and the methods of Ruby/GSL. This
# includes cut-and-paste from the
# {GNU Scientific Library -- Reference Manual}[http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/"target="_top],
# and documents of the extention libraries.
#
# === {}[link:index.html"name="1.1] Copyright of the GSL Reference
#
# Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
# 2007, 2008 The GSL Team.
#
# Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the
# terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version
# published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being
# "GNU General Public License" and "Free Software Needs Free Documentation", the
# Front-Cover text being "A GNU Manual", and with the Back-Cover Text being (a)
# (see below). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
# Free Documentation License". (a) The Back-Cover Text is: "You have the freedom
# to copy and modify this GNU Manual."
#
# === {}[link:index.html"name="1.2] Copyright of this reference
#
# 2009,2010 Yoshiki Tsunesada, David MacMahon
#
# Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
# the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
So we can see that
a) The Ruby/GSL reference is a derived work based on the GSL reference
b) The GSL reference is licensed under the GFDL with invariant sections
c) The Ruby/GSL reference is licensed under the GFDL without invariant
sections.
As I undertand it, the Ruby/GSL documentation is violating the GSL
documentation as it does not include the mentioned invariant sections.
But the GSL reference manual (available online at
http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/) was since then
relicensed under the GFDL with no invariant sections, what would make it
OK to license the Ruby/GSL reference as GFDL with no invariant sections,
if it was derived from the current version.
The rights of the upstream GSL copyright holder ("The GSL Team") over
that document, as they currently understand it, are not being violated
anymore by the derived version, though they were at the point where the
derived version was created.
Unfortunately Ruby/GSL is inactive upstream and I would't hold my breath
waiting for an upstream release that fixes that.
Any advice on the better course of action in this case?
--
Antonio Terceiro <terceiro@debian.org>
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