Re: LZW compression -- source code non-free?
Ben Gertzfield wrote:
> This recently came up with a bug against gimp --- gimp contains source
> code to deal with GIF and TIFF files, and uses some LZW compression
> code to decompress them. (I'm not sure if it uses the same code to
> compress them; that might make a difference.) Until now, I simply
> split the plug-ins for gif and tiff out of the main package and put
> them into another package, gimp-nonfree, but I got a bug report
> tonight saying I need to change the upstream source to remove the gif
> and tiff code.
My take on this is that debian aims to be a completly free system, and so
you should be allowed to use any of the source code in it for any purpose,
even if the source code is not actually used in a package that's in debian.
Other examples would be a prackage that has example code that is not used to
build the package. I think that example code should be removed from the
debianized source if it is legally encumbered.
Otherwise, you would still have to watch your step when using debian source
code, and ensure that the license is not a problem.
--
see shy jo
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