On Wed, 8 Aug 2012 21:58:40 +0100 Dominic Hargreaves wrote: [...] > The above package (currently at [1] but not uploaded) has had some > problems identified with the licensing of some of the components. As > you can see from the bug report[0] I've tried to work them out with the > copyright[2] holder of the components and they (the Ordnance Survey, > the national mapping agency in GB) have been very helpful, however I'm > not sure whether I'm going to get the perfect answer from them. First of all, thanks for dealing with this issue seriously and for trying to obtain a DFSG-free license for the data. > > I'd be grateful if someone could review the exchange in the bug report > and suggest the best course of action. I'm not that keen to prolong the > exchange with upstream, so if it's not considered okay in main with what > we have I am tempted to put it in non-free and just live with it. I took a look at the bug log [0] and it seems to me that what they say is pretty clearly that they want to restrict modifications (see message #41 of the bug log): | The data can be modified "to fit" but as long as it produces | the same result at the end. This does not look like anything compatible with Free Software, at least to me. It seems that this restriction conflicts with DFSG#3. If this is confirmed and you don't manage to persuade them to be more permissive, I am afraid that the package will have to go in non-free, sadly. > > Thanks, > Dominic. > > [0] <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=664558> > [1] <http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-perl/packages/libgeo-coordinates-osgb-perl.git;a=summary> > [2] I used the term loosely as it's not obvious to me that the data in > question is copyrightable I don't know whether the data in question are actually copyrightable or not. But please remember that there also exist database rights and other means to restrict our freedom (unfortunately!). I also wonder whether we are talking about an actual collection of mapping data or about a set of mathematical formulas and/or an algorithm. I was under the impression that mathematical formulas and algorithms could not be covered by copyright or even by database rights. I thought that only patents (and only in some jurisdictions) could restrict procedures and algorithms, but this is a whole different can of worms... Anyway, I'll leave this to real lawyers (which I am not!) to comment upon. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/frx-gpg-key-transition-2010.txt New GnuPG key, see the transition document! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
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