Re: "Invariant name" in hello's debian/rules file

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Robert Millan <zeratul2@wanadoo.es>

>   # Sample debian/rules file - for GNU Hello.
>   # Copyright 1994,1995 by Ian Jackson.
>   # I hereby give you perpetual unlimited permission to copy,
>   # modify and relicense this file, provided that you do not remove
>   # my name from the file itself.  (I assert my moral right of
>   # paternity under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.)
>   # This file may have to be extensively modified

> The license states that you can't remove the name from the file itself. I'm
> sure this is not what Ian intended, but one could add this line all over the
> file:

>   # Ian Jackson

> and then it can't be removed.

I would go with a less extreme interpretation. To me, "do not remove
my name from the file itself" would by default mean "do not cause the
file to not contain my name".

I can't imagine that the literal-minded interpretation you're implying
would be held good by any sane judge. A judge would reason that Ian
Jackson obviously put in the condition in order to protect the copy of
his name that he himself placed in the file, and would call him a
madman for trying to enforce the condition on a copy of his name that
somebody else placed there without his knowledge.

-- 
Henning Makholm               "Monarki, er ikke noget materielt ... Borger!"