Re: Plugins for non-free software in orig.tar.gz
On Sunday 04 July 2010 12:34:59 Francesco Poli wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 10:49:30 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> > On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:49:55 +0200 Josselin Mouette wrote:
> > > Le jeudi 01 juillet 2010 à 00:40 +0200, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo
> > > a
>
> > > écrit :
> [...]
>
> > > > $ 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 looks much more worrisome to me. There is no license for use or
> > > redistribution here. I’m surprised the FTP masters let this slip
> > > through.
> >
> > I am surprised too.
> > Above all, I am surprised that we seem to be first ones to notice this
> > issue, which allegedly affects several rendering tools...
>
> I wonder whether those "shaders" should be considered as purely
> functional in nature, and thus not copyrightable: I seem to recall that
> there's U.S. case law about a functionality exception to copyright
>
> protection, and the following was stated:
> | <pgregory> not much we can do about that, if we dont' ship them we're
> | not compliant.
>
> which seems to suggest that those "shaders" are necessary to comply to
> a software standard (namely, the RenderMan interface standard defined
> by Pixar Animation Studios).
>
> Maybe a lawyer should be consulted about this issue...
So what should I do about this whole issue? Summarize all the problems that
we've pointed out and write to this list and the authors to discuss the
whole issue together? Ask to them and post here about their explanations,
to know if they would be acceptable for Debian? ...?
Regards.
--
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montezelo@gmail.com>
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