Re: Copyright in public domain package
Michael Hanke <michael.hanke@gmail.com>
> [ Please keep me CC'ed, I'm not subscribed. ]
[...]
> I talked to upstream and they replaced those statement with something
> like the following to make their software acceptable for Debian main:
>
> # The immv file was originally part of FSL - FMRIB's Software Library
> # http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl
> # immv has now been placed in the public domain.
> #
> # Developed at FMRIB (Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance
> # Imaging of the Brain), Department of Clinical Neurology, Oxford
> # University, Oxford, UK
>
> This should be unambiguous, correct?
Sorry, I think it's ambiguous. The UK Patent Office (www.patent.gov.uk,
who also handle much to do with copyright, sadly) sometimes uses 'in the
public domain' to mean that something has been published or offered for
sale to the public.
How has it 'been placed in the public domain'? I am not aware of any
way to do that in Oxford besides copyright expiring, or the work somehow
not qualifying for automatic copyright protection anyway. It may be
possible to disclaim all copyright interest in a work, but I'm not sure
how to do that.
Please ask them to use a MIT/X11-like licence or similar liberal terms.
If they need specific help, I think oss-watch.ac.uk is still based in
Oxford.
> What is the appropriate way to note this combination of licenses in the
> package. Do I simply add this additional copyright to debian/copyright?
Yes, simply list all relevant permission statements.
Hope that helps,
--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct
Reply to: