Francesco Poli wrote: > Hi all! :) > > I found a package in main that does not seem to comply with the DFSG. > Moreover the copyright file seems inaccurate. > > I'm seeking help, as I would like to file a bugreport in the Right > way(TM). > What should I say in the bugreport? What you wrote in this mail, along with an X-Debbugs-CC: debian-legal@lists.debian.org would probably have been sufficent. > The package I'm talking about is figlet: a small program to make ASCII > banners and the like... > > Looking at the contents of the orig.tar.gz, I found a file named > "Artistic-license.txt" that contains a license similar, but not > identical to /usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic > I didn't have the time to revise the DFSG-freeness of this license yet, > but the fact is that copyright notices in files seem to be inconsistent. Could you please post the text of "Artistic-license.txt", along with a wdiff to /usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic ? That would help greatly with ascertaining the Freeness of the license, and determining whether the modifications are significant. Also, note that there have been several variants of the Artistic license; this may be one of those variants. > Actually file figlet.c states that the whole package is under this > `Artistic license': > > /**************************************************************************** > > FIGlet Copyright 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai > FIGlet Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan > FIGlet Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet > Portions written by Paul Burton and Christiaan Keet > Internet: <info@figlet.org> > FIGlet, along with the various FIGlet fonts and documentation, is > copyrighted under the provisions of the Artistic License (as listed > in the file "Artistic-license.txt" which is included in this package. > ****************************************************************************/ > > > At the same time other files seem to state different things... > See the following. > > > Makefile: > copyright notices with no permissions granted > > # Makefile for figlet version 2.2.1 (13 July 2002) > # adapted from Makefile for figlet version 2.2 (15 Oct 1996) > # Copyright 1993, 1994,1995 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai > # Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan > # Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet > > > chkfont.c, figlist, showfigfonts: > no copyright notice at all These are most probably simply omissions of the licensing information; nevertheless, a clarification that the package license covers these files would be helpful. > crc.c, crc.h, inflate.c, inflate.h, zipio.c, zipio.h: > non-free license, I would say... > > /* > * Copyright (c) 1995, Edward B. Hamrick > * > * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and > * its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided > * that > * > * (i) the above copyright notice and the text in this "C" comment block > * appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and > * > * (ii) any modifications to this source file must be sent, via e-mail > * to the copyright owner (currently hamrick@primenet.com) within > * 30 days of such modification. > > This is compelled distribution. It does not permit private > modifications. > It fails the Dissident Test and the Desert Island Test. > Non-free. Agreed. However, if, as their names indicate, these are simply implementations of CRC and compression algorithms, then they should be easily replaceable with Free versions. > * > * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, > * EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY > * WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. > * > * IN NO EVENT SHALL EDWARD B. HAMRICK BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, > * INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER > * RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF > * THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF > * OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. > */ > > > figfont.txt: > non-free license > > | Draft 2.0 Copyright 1996, 1997 > | by John Cowan and Paul Burton > | Portions Copyright 1991, 1993, 1994 > | by Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai > | May be freely copied and distributed. > > Where's the permission to modify? That's definitely non-free. > figlet.6: > This file include another copyright notice that seems to cover the whole > package, but the permission grant seems non-free... > > .\" FIGlet > .\" Copyright (C) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai > .\" Internet: <info@figlet.org> > .\" Portions Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 by John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org> > .\" Portions Copyright 2002 by Christiaan Keet > .\" FIGlet, along with the various FIGlet fonts and documentation, may > .\" be freely copied and distributed. > > It lacks permission to make modifications! True. It may simply be an inaccurate summary of the actual license, though. > .\" If you use FIGlet, please send an e-mail message to > .\" <info@figlet.org> > .\" > > > getopt.c: > seems to be public domain > > * Here's something you've all been waiting for: the AT&T public domain > * source for getopt(3). It is the code which was given out at the 1985 > * UNIFORUM conference in Dallas. I obtained it by electronic mail directly > * from AT&T. The people there assure me that it is indeed in the public > * domain. I see no reason to doubt the given statement. If there *is* any doubt as to the accuracy of this claim, it should be trivial to substitute a Free getopt implementation. > > some font files (fonts/*.flf): > very limited permission grant, non-free > > | Permission is hereby given to modify this font, as long as the > | modifier's name is placed on a comment line. > > No permission to distribute... Even with such permission, this would be non-free. Clauses like that from the Artistic license that the majority of the package uses, "provided that you insert a prominent notice in each changed file stating how and when you changed that file", carefully avoid requiring the name of the modifier; this does not. I should not have to identify myself in order to modify the font. > OK, now the copyright file states: > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > This is the Debian Linux prepackaged version of Figlet, a program for doing A non-license-related minor nit: s/Debian Linux/Debian/. > things > _ _ _ _ _ _ > | (_) | _____ | |_| |__ (_)___ > | | | |/ / _ \ | __| '_ \| / __| > | | | < __/ | |_| | | | \__ \_ > |_|_|_|\_\___| \__|_| |_|_|___(_) > > This package was originally put together by Robert Leslie <rob@mars.org>, > and the maintained Martin Schulze <joey@debian.org>. Now it's maintained by Another minor nit: s/the maintained/then maintained by/ . > Francesco Tapparo <cesco@debian.org> with sources obtained from: > ftp://ftp.nicoh.com/pub/figlet/program/unix/figlet22.tar.gz > > figlet (c) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai > Internet: <ggc@uiuc.edu> and <chai@uiuc.edu> > FIGlet Copyright 1996, 1997 John Cowan^M > Portions written by Paul Burton^ Looks like some control characters snuck into the file here. > figlet, along with the various figlet fonts and documentation, may be > freely copied and distributed. > > /* > * crc.c - CRC calculation routine > * > * Version 1.0 > * > * Copyright (c) 1995, Edward B. Hamrick > * > * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and > * its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided > * that > * > * (i) the above copyright notice and the text in this "C" comment block > * appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and > * > * (ii) any modifications to this source file must be sent, via e-mail > * to the copyright owner (currently hamrick@primenet.com) within > * 30 days of such modification. > * > * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, > * EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY > * WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. > * > * IN NO EVENT SHALL EDWARD B. HAMRICK BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, > * INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER > * RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF > * THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF > * OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. > */ This is the same non-free license discussed above. > In addition, the authors have approved the following copyright > addendum, according to Robert Leslie: > > This program may be sold as a component of the Debian Linux > distribution or a Linux distribution derived from the Debian > Linux distribution. If it is distributed in binary form, the > source code must be included in the distribution as well. If the license were actually Free, this would not be required, and if the license isn't Free, this doesn't make it Free. This kind of thing does not need to be in the copyright files of packages in main. It may simply be a remnant from a previous license, though. - Josh Triplett
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