Re: gpstrans copyright

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

"James R. Van Zandt" <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com> writes:

> >> gpstrans is in main, but I think it is non-free. the copyright file is:

> >>   GPStrans is FreeWare. I'm releasing this source code to the
> >>   public domain.  You can redistribute it as often as you want
>      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >>   as long as you let the original copyright notice in. If you
> >>   like to do changes to GPStrans, please contact me before so
> >>   that we can coordinate the work.

> I maintain this package.  I decided that as long as he stated "public
> domain", then all those other statements were not important.

I concur. Once the author has said "public domain" he has promised not
to sue anybody over anything they do to the work; with the explicit
exception about removing the copyright notice.

I think it is irrelevant that the same author has also, on other
occations, offered the software under other less free terms. He has
the right to do that, but Debian (and anyone else) similarly has the
right to choose which of the author's offers to accept.

The part about contacting the author for modifications looks like a
non-binding request.

Still, the author probably did not intend this mess, and it would
probably not hurt if someone politely offered him guidance on how to
write mutually consistent copyright notices.

-- 
Henning Makholm                              "Lucy giver mig en smule af sin
                                 vandration. Hun siger, piger ikke bliver så
                          tørstige som drenge. Jeg har tit selv tænkt dette,
                  men det burde være noget søfolk blev bedre orienteret om."