Re: Bug#919356: dwarves-dfsg: Copyright/licensing is unclear
Domenico Andreoli <cavok@debian.org> writes:
> the situation of dwarves-dfsg improved a lot over the weekend
That's good to hear. What is the event you're referring to? Can you give
a URL to something that describes this change?
> the only knot left is now the license of hash.h
>
> This file is also present in the kernel [0] with an updated copyright
> but still without license.
The file you show (in the Linux code base) seems likely to have an
equivalent implementation under a different license, from some other
code base.
> I received a private email from somebody in the kernel community who
> already tried to contact Nadia in the past but did not get any reply.
Thank you also for contacting the Linux developers forum to ask
<URL:https://www.mail-archive.com/linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org/msg1900588.html>.
> I think that pushing it to non-free is formally the right thing but I
> actually feel it's not the right thing.
To know that work (that file) is free software, we need a clear grant of
some specific license, for that work.
If the work is not free, it would be incorrect to have the work in Debian.
Alternatives, for complying with the Debian Free Software Guidelines with
this package, include:
* Find a credible grant of license under some GPL-compatible free
license to that exact file. Document that explicit grant in the Debian
package. This demonstrates the work is DFSG-free.
* Convince ‘dwarves-dfsg’ upstream to replace that file with a different
implementation (I don't know whether such an implementation exists)
under a license compatible with the same version of GNU GPL. Document
that explicit grant in the Debian package. This demonstrates the
modified work is DFSG-free.
* Replace that file in Debian only, with a different implementation as
above. Document that explicit grant in the Debian package. This
demonstrates the modified Debian package is DFSG-free.
* Move the work to the ‘non-free’ area.
* Remove the work altogether.
Those are in descending order of (my recommended) preference.
--
\ “Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: |
`\ therefore we must learn both arts.” —Thomas Carlyle, 1830 |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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