Hello James, On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 10:05:43AM -0800, James Michael DuPont wrote: > Dear Debian legal, Gnu License Violation, > There seems to be a problem with the sources of > the libjpeg package. It does not have the full source code, > it is missing the autoconf and automake sources. > Do you allow debian and gnu packages to be distributed without the > "full" source code including the autoconf tools. > These sources are needed to port the package to a new platform. > Can you please advise as to the definition of source code > pertaining to the autoconf's configure.in? Thank you for your expression of interest in the license-compliance of Debian packages. The libjpeg library is not licensed under the GPL, and therefore does not carry with it a requirement that we distribute any particular components as part of the source when we distribute binaries (i.e., the GPL "preferred form for modification" clause). Moreover, the license of autoconf contains the following exception: As a special exception, the Free Software Foundation gives unlimited permission to copy, distribute and modify the configure scripts that are the output of Autoconf. You need not follow the terms of the GNU General Public License when using or distributing such scripts, even though portions of the text of Autoconf appear in them. The GNU General Public License (GPL) does govern all other use of the material that constitutes the Autoconf program. As far as I'm able to determine from the source package, libjpeg does not use automake for any of its build scripts. Therefore, I do not believe that our distribution of libjpeg in its present form constitutes a violation of the licenses of either autoconf or libjpeg. The absence of the configure.in used to generate the present configure script is a bit of a nuisance, but I'm not sure it's substantial enough to regard this as not being DFSG-compliant. I'm sure other list subscribers will weigh in if they disagree with me on this point. If it is regarded as making the software non-free, I'm sure a free replacement can be reconstituted with ease. I volunteer to help with this if necessary. Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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