Unknown license bits and public domain
Hello -legal,
I'm in doubt for RC bug:
1.2 debian/copyright: "This package has many utilities that are GPL
or close to GPL code." "close to GPL"???
"The original source code was published on the Net by a group of
cypherpunks. I picked up a modified version from the news."
Quite a license...
as found at [1]. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=335278
(everything else is resolved)
The problem is that shc (shell compiler) [2] uses in its shc.c code with
unknown license notice which had been posted by John L. Allen to a newgroup
back in 21 May 1996 10:49:37 -0400 (as explained in the bug itself).
Unfortunately John L Allen is unreachible to clarify the license terms of his
piece of code [3].
Now, the question is: how long we should wait for nobody claim a copyright for
the code to have it in Public Domain ? As explained in [4] an item may be
public domain in one jurisdiction but not another, so we should take into
account the United States law since the author is obviously American (used to
work for Northrop Grumman Corporation). Btw, shc's upstream and package
maintainer have been mailed out for clarificaiton but no reply has been
received yet.
Will the package be removed in case of author of that RC implementation
remains unreachible or if the Public Domain story is not applicable for the
case. Any pointers of how to proceed from now on are welcome.
Thanks.
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=335278
[2] http://www.datsi.fi.upm.es/~frosal/sources/
[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2006/06/msg00551.html
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
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