Re: license question and problems
> The license for babel is:
>
>
> This software is provided on an "as is" basis, and without warranty of
> any kind, including but not limited to any implied warranty of
> merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
>
> In no event shall the authors or the University of Arizona be liable for
> any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages
> arising from use or distribution of this software. The University of Arizona
> also shall not be liable for any claim against any user of this program by
> any third party.
>
> (That's it!)
>
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1) Is the above license OK for Debian?
No. That's not really a license at all, it's just a disclaimer.
Under U.S. law, copy rights are reserved unless explicitly licensed to
the user.
This would mean that you could be sued for copyright infringement for
distributing this software under this license, even though I doubt the
authors intend to do so. In any case, it needs to be clarified before
it can go in Debian.
> 2) If so, is it OK to go ahead if I do not get a reply from the authors?
I don't think so. You can begin preparing the packaging on your own,
but it shouldn't go on the ftp server until this license issue is clarified
in writing.
> 3) The new gdis package also depends on the Debian povray package, which is
> in
> non-free: I assume that my gdis package will therefore also have to go
> in non-free?
No, contrib. Contrib can depend on non-free, but must be free itself.
Eric
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