Re: license change for POSIX manpages
<posted & mailed>
Andre Lehovich wrote:
> (Please cc: me on replies)
>
> The upstream source for the manpages has received permission
> from IEEE to include text from the POSIX documentation in
> Linux manual pages. Debian has not distributed the POSIX
> man pages because until recently the license prohibited
> modification.
>
> The latest version (1.67, 20 May 2004) now allows
> modification, "so long as any conflicts with the standard
> are clearly marked as such in the text". Joey Schulze,
> Debian's manpages maintainer, thinks the need for clear
> marking may be a problem.
Yeah, it's not actually free. :-(
If it said something like "So long as no conflicts with the standard are
represented, explicitly or implicitly, as conforming to the standard", it
could be free.
As it is, it seems to quite effectively prohibit (for instance) adapting a
printf manpage for use as a manpage for weirdf, a non-POSIX command. I see
no sane way to make sure that "conflicts with the standard are clearly
marked as such in the text" for such reuse. Correct me if I'm wrong.
> I've attached the full text of the new license. The other
> sentence that caught my eye is "This notice shall appear on
> any product containing this material". Is putting it in
> /usr/share/doc sufficient?
>
> Does this now meet Debian's criteria for distribution in
> main?
No.
> Thanks,
> --Andre
--
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
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