Re: No source code for wesnoth-music
On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:08:27AM +0400, Evgeny Kapun wrote:
> Hi,
> I've found that music tracks for The Battle for Wesnoth (package wesnoth-music in Debian) are only provided as compressed Ogg Vorbis files, without any information used to generate them. I have two questions:
>
> * Does wesnoth-music comply with DFSG? I've heard that at certain point DFSG only applied to programs, but later firmware, documentation and other materials were also included. Does DFSG (and, specifically, its requirement of having source code included) apply to music?
The DFSG applies to all software. After previous misunderstandings, a Debian
General Resolution has clarified that fact. Some people prefer to say that the
DFSG applies to all software only *since* the GR.
There is a good reason that source is required for all software, including
music: So that the music is open for improvement and for adaption to different
requirements (e.g. using musical instruments matching the theme of a campaign
(tribal/medieval/SF)).
> * Does distributing wesnoth-music without source code comply with its license (GPL 2+)?
No. The copyright holders can distribute their own work in any way they like,
but anybody else breaches the GPL 2 or 3 by not offering source code.
> There was some discussion about this problem on wesnoth forums [1][2]. It mentions that at least some of music files in question were generated using proprietary software, and that even the authors can't regenerate some of them anymore.
Apparently there is a consensus that if the original source was lost, then
whatever still is there counts as source. So in that your the compressed ogg
files are the source form (because they are prefered among all existing forms).
(I always fear that mentioning that consensus might lead people reluctant to
reveal their true sources to "accidentally" delete them.)
Hope this helps. I am not a lawyer. I am not a Debian anything.
Best regards,
Mark Weyer
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