Re: Why we must ship at least some licenses (was: Manoj, ...
Hi,
>>"Marcus" == Marcus Brinkmann <Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> writes:
Marcus> On Mon, Aug 17, 1998 at 11:57:26AM +1000, Drake Diedrich wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 17, 1998 at 03:11:10AM +0200, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
>> > You have fulfilled your duty making it available in the same directory as
>> > the rest of the source. However, for Debian, being a huge distribution, with
>>
>> Some shades of grey:
>>
>> 1) GPL is available on some ftp site or CD somewhere
>> 2) GPL is on the same ftp site or CD set.
>> 3) GPL is in the proposed verbatim/ directory
>> 4) GPL is in the main/ directory
>> 5) GPL is in the same directory
>> 6) GPL is in the same tar archive
>> 7) GPL is included in the same file
>> 8) Through cryptographic magic the GPL is atomically attached to the
>> package, making the package useless if the GPL is not also present.
>>
>> Current practice is 4.
I like this; though I personally think 2 is adequate (all that
is required legally), and that I could live with 3.
Marcus> Mmh. What I don't like about the current situation is that
Marcus> you can go to the ftp site, download many (binary) packages
Marcus> and don't get a single license, until someone tells you that
Marcus> it is (somewhat hidden) in the base files package. On a
Marcus> Debian system (for example a Debian CD), I think the current
Marcus> situation is good enough, considering that base-files is
Marcus> essential.
Correct. You really need dpkg to install debian binary
packages; even though you can download and hack away at the package
using ar and doing everything that dpkg does manually (but then I can
do everything the CPU does manually to, if I had the patience oj
Job). Essential packages are those without which dpkg is not
supported or expected to work. I too think that as long as
/usr/doc/copyright is present on every machine, we have done our
task.
However, the essential package that provides
/usr/doc/copyright caould well live in the verbatim section. We
should not compromise on our free license stance any more than we
compromise on our free software stance.
>> Manoj is suggesting moving up a directory level to 3. Marcus is
>> proposing we move to 6 when packaged, and 5 when unpacked.
Marcus> A small correction: My proposal is to keep the current
Marcus> situation, and when dpkg can manage several copies of the
Marcus> same file in several packages, we should include the file
Marcus> /usr/doc/copyright/GPL in every GPL'ed package etc. When
Marcus> unpacked on a Debian system, only one copy will ever be on
Marcus> the system, so on a Debian system, the situation will be like
Marcus> now. On the ftp site, we would ship the license with the
Marcus> software then. If unpacked somewhere else, a copy is still
Marcus> available.
I see no reason to bloat every package like that. We are not
required to (point 2 in the list above satisfies all legal
requirements). I think that we should actually move the copyrights to
the verbatim section, and move to point 2 above. As long as they are
on every debian system, and on every cd and archive, we have done.
Marcus> Currently, we don't have the technical functionality to
Marcus> achieve this, though, and even I don't want 1500 copies of
Marcus> the GPL on every Debian installation (although I could live
Marcus> with it on my system).
I definitely do not have thqat much space to waste. One copy
on every machine, cd, and ftp archive should be enough. And on the CD
and ftp archive, they should sit in the verbatim section where they
belong.
manoj
--
...when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or
writer has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious
floor. Fred Brooks, Jr.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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