Re: Bug#431883: dcraw license does not give permission to distribute modified versions or source alongside
> Package: dcraw
> Version: 7.02-1
> Severity: serious
>
> On Thu, 05 Jul 2007, Steve King wrote:
>> However I would appreciate it if the assembled masses of legal
>> experts could confirm that they agree that this is the case.
>
> There's actually an even more fundamental problem with dcraw.c:
>
> /*
> dcraw.c -- Dave Coffin's raw photo decoder
> Copyright 1997-2007 by Dave Coffin, dcoffin a cybercom o net
>
> This is a command-line ANSI C program to convert raw photos from
> any digital camera on any computer running any operating system.
>
> No license is required to download and use dcraw.c. However,
> to lawfully redistribute this code, you must either (a) include
> full source code* for all executable files containing RESTRICTED
> functions, (b) remove all RESTRICTED functions, re-implement them,
> or copy them from an earlier, unrestricted Revision of dcraw.c,
> or (c) purchase a license from the author.
>
> The functions that process Foveon images have been RESTRICTED
> since Revision 1.237. All other code remains free for all uses.
>
> *If you have not modified dcraw.c in any way, a link to my
> homepage qualifies as "full source code".
>
> $Revision: 1.387 $
> $Date: 2007/06/24 00:18:52 $
> */
>
>
> You'll notice that we have no permission to distribute modified
> versions of dcraw.c as required by the DFSG.
I don't agree with you here. It seems to me that we do have permission to
distribute modified versions, provided source is included.
> Secondly, it appears that
> we must include full source code if we've modified dcraw.c, but we
> don't do that. We distribute source alongside.
>
All that is required in this license is a link to David's home page.
The build process does not modify the file dcraw.c, so the footnote clause
is applicable to this version of dcraw that would be included in debian.
--
Steve King
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