On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 00:40:13 +0200 Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo wrote: > On Wednesday 30 June 2010 23:27:41 Francesco Poli wrote: [...] > > > > I think the key questions here are: > > > > 0) does the plugin itself comply with the DFSG? > > > > > > It doesn't have any copyright line, other than: [...] > > > The author as far as I know is from Aqsis Team, everything is released > > > under GPL or LGPL. > > > > I think the Aqsis Team should clarify the licensing of those plugin > > scripts: who owns the copyright and which license was chosen is not > > clear to me. > > That's what I think, too. [...] > > Of course, the quickest and easiest solution, until the licensing is > > clarified, is dropping the scripts from the package... > > First of all, I need to talk to the author personally when he's available, > but I think that this script is not useful to be shipped in a binary anyway, > so it's not clear to me why it should be there. [...] > As I understand it, it's of no use unless you have Houdini > installed, and then you have to install it in Houdiny as a plugin (not sure > if compiled in some way, or not processed at all). [...] > If upstream agrees that removing is a good option for them (anybody can pick > up the script from their website, should they want to use it and have that > Houdini software installed), that's fine for me (for the time being, given > the constraints of the upcoming freeze). OK, hence removing those Houdini interoperability scripts could possibly be the correct solution, even in the long term... [...] > So for now, the main questions are: > > 1) I should still remove it from orig.tar.gz, otherwise Debian would > continue distributing it and potentially breaking the license, right? > > 2) Should I do anything special other than that? Explain the case in a > README.Debian? Name the orig.tar.gz in a specific way? Use 'dfsg' in the > name of orig.tar.gz, source or binary packages in some ways. I think that the best practices are explained in the Debian Developer's Reference: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html#bpp-origtargz However, since IANADD, I think you should ask actual DDs about this. [...] > > > > | Copyright for 'sdcBMP/d_sdcBMP.cpp' and 'sdcWin32/d_sdcWin32.cpp' > > > > | under 'tools/displays/' directory: [...] > > The license for those files is at least very unclear. > > > > If those files may not be dropped without bad consequences, I think a > > re-licensing should be asked to the copyright owner(s), or, as I > > previously suggested, DFSG-free replacements should be searched for. > > Agree again. I'll ask them about this, too, but in the short term probably > removing is the solution. OK, please go on and drop those two files, if you are confident that the package can "live" without them. [...] > > Wait, are you saying that a part of aqsis is copyrighted by Pixar and > > does not even have an explicit permission to redistribute (let alone > > sell, modify, and all the other important freedoms)? > > > > Or am I misinterpreting the conversation you quoted? > > "Aqsis is a cross-platform photorealistic 3D rendering solution, adhering to > the RenderMan interface standard defined by Pixar Animation Studios." > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RenderMan_Interface_Specification > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RenderMan_Shading_Language > > This is the actual header of one of the shaders: > > $ head -7 shaders/surface/metal.sl > /* metal.sl - Standard metal surface for RenderMan Interface. > * (c) Copyright 1988, Pixar. > * > * The RenderMan (R) Interface Procedures and RIB Protocol are: > * Copyright 1988, 1989, Pixar. All rights reserved. > * RenderMan (R) is a registered trademark of Pixar. > */ > > I tried to find the answers in Pixar's website, but I found none. I think > that it's a kind of OpenGL, but I don't know if things like "All rights > reserved" means that they can forbid people using them, like the (already > several) FOSS implementations (aqsis, pixie, jrman). This sounds very surprising to me: you are basically saying that several RenderMan-compatible rendering tools are claimed to be Free Software, but nonetheless include shaders that are utterly "All Rights Reserved", unmodifiable, and possibly undistributable! :-| Are we the first ones to realize that this is not OK?!? > > > Cheers, and thanks for your patience. Thanks to you for adopting aqsis and for addressing its legal issues with diligence! Bye. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/progs/scripts/pdebuild-hooks.html Need some pdebuild hook scripts? ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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