On Mon, Sep 01, 2003 at 03:50:40PM +0200, Mika Fischer wrote: > Now the questions: > 1) If one includes public-domain material in a GPL work, does one have > to state what material is in the public domain? At least in the U.S., to my knowledge, this is not *required*. I can quote entire plays' worth of Shakespeare without even hinting as to their source or copyright status, and need fear no copryight infrigement claims. However, when mixing copyrighted and public domain materials, it might be *wise* to indicate which materials are in the public domain. But this is often not done -- just look at the Disney corporation. > 2) Are there any GPL-compatibility issues when the data is licensed > differently from the GPL? So if an author grants the rights to copy, > modify and redistribute is it enough to basicaly say: "This software is > GPLed but file xyz is licensed according to the following statement: > ..."? > Does a list like the following suffice? > ---snip--- > Filename: xyz > Author: Name > Terms: blah... > > Filename: abc > ... > ---snip--- Ideally, the answer to this question would be simple; any *data* a GPLed *program* operates on can be licensed however one likes. However, certain transformations of data by a GPLed program can make what should be simple more complex. For instance, libgcc.a gets linked into object files produced by GCC by default, so the FSF had to add special rider conditions ensuring that while GCC itself is GPLed, it is permissible to link libgcc against anything. (It has never been, to my knowledge, the FSF's intention to ensure that one could only produce GPLed software with GCC.) In the general case, I'd say the license of the data doesn't matter. However, whether this holds for celestia depends on what the program does. > 3) What rights do need to be granted for data to be included in > non-free. In particular what about the following: > ---snip--- > JPL Image Policy > > JPL images are available for use by the public free of charge. However, > by electing to download images from this web site the user agrees that > Caltech makes no warranties or representations with respect to its > ownership of copyrights for the images, does not represent others who > may claim to be owners of rights in the images, and makes no warranties > as to the quality of the images. > > Commercial users (excluding journalistic uses) are required to copy the > JPL Image Release document and return a signed copy to the Caltech's > Intellectual Property Counsel, California Institute of Technology M/C > 201-85, Pasadena, California 91125, who will countersign document and > return a copy to you. Copies may be faxed to (626) 577-2528. This > document will become effective when it is countersigned by Caltech. > ---snip--- I'm not sure we have a written "what makes a work distributable in non-free" policy. A significant amount of the stuff in non-free would be DFSG-free if it weren't for a discriminatory clause like "for non-commercial use only". I *think*, as long as Debian and its mirror network can redistribute the work without charge or royalty, it meets the fundmental test for distributability in non-free -- patent, trademark, trade secret, and other issues notwithstanding. I'm sorry these answers are more gray than you were probably hoping for. -- G. Branden Robinson | I have a truly elegant proof of the Debian GNU/Linux | above, but it is too long to fit branden@debian.org | into this .signature file. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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