Re: Non-free files in source packages?

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Don Armstrong <don@debian.org> writes:

> On Wed, 05 Jan 2005, Simon Josefsson wrote:
>> Are there any policies surrounding what may go into the source
>> packages, that Debian distribute, as far as license is concerned?
>
> Yes. The source packages for things that are in main and contrib must
> satisfy the DFSG.

Thanks.

>> Do Debian consider it problematic if source packages include, say,
>> RFCs, which, if I understand correctly, are considered non-free by
>> Debian otherwise?
>
> Post-sarge, RFCs with the traditional "no modification" license will
> be non-free and will need to be moved from the orig.tar.gz and/or the
> diff.gz.

To be perfectly clear, by the "no modification" license, are you
referring to the following license?  This was copied from RFC 3454.

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Have Debian evaluated the new RFC copying conditions?  Quoting
<ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3667.txt> section 3.3:

   a. To the extent that a Contribution or any portion thereof is
      protected by copyright and other rights of authorship, the
      Contributor, and each named co-Contributor, and the organization
      he or she represents or is sponsored by (if any) grant a
      perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide
      right and license to the ISOC and the IETF under all intellectual
      property rights in the Contribution:

      (A)  to copy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution as
           part of the IETF Standards Process or in an Internet-Draft,

      (B)  to prepare or allow the preparation of translations of the
           Contribution into languages other than English,

      (C)  unless explicitly disallowed in the notices contained in a
           Contribution [as per Section 5.2 below], to prepare
           derivative works (other than translations) that are based on
           or incorporate all or part of the Contribution, or comment
           upon it, within the IETF Standards Process.  The license to
           such derivative works not granting the ISOC and the IETF any
           more rights than the license to the original Contribution,

      (D)  to reproduce any trademarks, service marks or trade names
           which are included in the Contribution solely in connection
           with the reproduction, distribution or publication of the
           Contribution and derivative works thereof as permitted by
           this paragraph.  When reproducing Contributions, the IETF
           will preserve trademark and service mark identifiers used by
           the Contributor of the Contribution, including (TM) and (R)
           where appropriate, and

      (E)  to extract, copy, publish, display, distribute, modify and
           incorporate into other works, for any purpose (and not
           limited to use within the IETF Standards Process) any
           executable code or code fragments that are included in any
           IETF Document (such as MIB and PIB modules), subject to the
           requirements of Section 5 (it also being understood that the
           licenses granted under this paragraph (E) shall not be deemed
           to grant any right under any patent, patent application or
           other similar intellectual property right disclosed by the
           Contributor under [IETF IPR]).

   b. The Contributor grants the IETF and ISOC permission to reference
      the name(s) and address(es) of the Contributor(s) and of the
      organization(s) s/he represents or is sponsored by (if any).

>> Otherwise, how do Debian handle the situation when the RFC is
>> parsed, and become part of the implementation?  In other words,
>> where the GPL require that you distribute the RFC because it is the
>> preferred "source code" to make modifications to.
>
> The above situation is one where the work is not distributable at all
> until the depenency on the RFC is removed, as the RFC itself cannot be
> distributed under the terms of the GPL.

That is a clear answer.  Alas, in some situations, it may be difficult
to remove that dependency.  For example, Libidn derive data tables
from RFC 3454.

Thanks,
Simon