Re: FRR package in Debian violates the GPL licence
On Sat, 16 Mar 2019, Paul Jakma wrote:
> The GPL stipulates that the distributor must "appropriately publish on
> each copy an appropriate copyright notice".
Debian does, in /usr/share/doc/frr/copyright.
> This is very deliberate, as FRR denies the applicablility of the GPL
> to those files, even though these files are dependent on the GPL
> source code for function and comprehension and these files are derived
> works of the GPL source code, according to legal advice.
My understanding is that those files in themselves are not derivative
works of GPLed source code, but the entire FRR project is. At least,
that's the judgment of the project in
https://github.com/FRRouting/frr/issues/1923
> The Debian project can not magically grant itself a GPL licence for
> this infringing code, when the FRR project have none to give.
As long as Debian is complying with the GPL, whether the FRR project is
or is not complying is irrelevant according to GPL-2 §4:
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
I'm afraid that the underlying issue here is a dispute between the
Quagga project and the FRR fork of the Quagga project;[1] Debian isn't a
party to this dispute, and it's not Debian's job to choose a winner. I
hope that the parties to the dispute will compete on the merits or even
better, collaborate in the future.
Best of luck.
1: https://lists.quagga.net/pipermail/quagga-users/2017-August/014815.html
--
Don Armstrong https://www.donarmstrong.com
life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
-- e.e. cummings "Four VII" _is 5_
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