Re: Rejected Package - Licence question

[Andreas Fester <Andreas.Fester@gmx.de>]

Hi Frank (and all others),

thanks for the clarifications!

Frank Küster wrote:
>> An earlier version of the package is already in Debian
>> and it also contains the file Manual.texi with the same
>> copyright information, but the file was only in the
>> source package while the new version now contains a
>> -doc package which allows to install the manual.
> 
> In other words, the non-free license was just overlooked in the old
> version.

I think so, yes.

[...]
> No, you have to remove it from the orig.tar.gz, or...
> 
> > - Anything else?
> 
> have it relicensed.

... which means that the upstream author has to *replace* the
questionable section with a reference to, for example, the GPL,
right?

[...]
>> Also, I already contacted the upstream author, and it was not
>> really intended to make the Manual non-free by this copyright
>> statement; any hints how to make the manual DFSG-compliant
>> in the future are welcome (I suppose a valid solution is to
>> simply remove the copyright statement from the file).
> 
> Err, no, that would make it undistributable even in non-free.

Does this mean that a COPYRIGHT file in the upstream package root
directory does not automatically apply to *all* files of the package?
Does each and every file need to contain at least a link
to the licence which applies to it? I mean, this could be difficult,
at least when generated files come into play... (e.g. generated
html documentation which is already shipped with the upstream package).

> The best option would be to license the manual under the same license as
> the software.  In principle, it's also possible to use a different
> license, but that only gives people trouble when making a derivative
> work.  If upstream insists that the documentation needs a license that's
> specifically designed for documentation (not programs), try to persuade
> him of the opposite, using the arguments found in -legal archive.

I think thats not an issue, he actually asked me already if I can give
some hints :-)

Thanks,

        Andreas

-- 
Andreas Fester
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