Re: imagej for debian
Le Mon, May 15, 2006 at 02:01:46PM +0200, Paolo Ariano a écrit :
>
> why i can't put a public domain software [1] under the GPL ?
Dear Paolo,
why do you want to do so? As long as there are no modifications to the
sources in the public domain, anybody is free to ignore your GPL'd
version anyway.
If the software were upstream dead, it could make sense to give it a
second life by developping additionals functions and releasing the whole
under the GPL, but as the project is still actively maintained by its
original authors, it would be unfriendly to their work.
However, as you pointed out, this "public domain" issue is quite
complex. If it is important for you, you could for instance ask the
authors whether they would accept to add something like "or GPL in the
countries in which this software can not be placed in the public domain"
to their disclaimer. (While spellchecking this mail, I wonder if this
would be DFSG-free...)
But consider before that if this program is in the public domain, it is
because the american taxpayer wants that everybody can benefit from what
has been done with public money, including the persons interested by
making proprietary extensions to this software, because somehow they
payed for it.
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
Wako, Saitama, Japan
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