Re: [PROPOSAL] Full text of GPL must be included
Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> writes:
> > Is it also illegal to email a 20 line, GPLed, .c file to someone,
> > without attaching the entire GPL?
tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) writes:
> Probably, but it's also harmless.
Hmm ... where do you draw the line?
> However, Debian is in a different position, and the problem is that
> people can and do pull .debs off the Debian site and install them on
> other distros. The license really does require that we give them a
> copy of the GPL, and that's a reasonable requirement.
We do give them a copy of the GPL. Its up to them to take it. If you
think that it is difficult to find this license, then place it in a file
at the top of our archive. Then it will be in a conspicuous place on
our ftp site and CDs.
> Those people don't even have any good way to find out where the
> license *is* if they don't already know about it. This is the kind of
> problem that the current situation has.
Hmm ... lets take a look. From my own cpio package,
/usr/share/doc/cpio/copyright says:
: This is the Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of GNU cpio
: (including mt).
:
: This package was put together by Ian Murdock <imurdock@debian.org>,
: from sources obtained from:
: prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu
I'd say that the user should look here for a copy of the upstream
source. It certainly will have a copy of the license. Of course, the
user can always get a copy of the source from us.
: This package has been modified by Brian Mays <brian@debian.org>.
: Modifications of cpio package for Debian GNU/Linux Copyright (C) 1996-99
: Brian Mays and are released under the GPL (on Debian systems see
: `/usr/doc/copyright/GPL').
Whoops! Now we have a problem. I'm in the habit of GPLing all of my
modifications when debianizing a package. Do I now need to ship a copy
of the GPL with *ALL* of my packages? Even the non-copy-lefted ones?
: Changes:
[...]
: GNU cpio is Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
:
: This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
: it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
: the Free Software Foundation; version 2 dated June, 1991.
:
: This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
: but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
: MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
: GNU General Public License for more details.
:
: On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General
: Public License can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL'.
In my opinion, this is as good as a symbolic link to the GPL file, and
it takes less disk space.
Hard links, of course, present problems for unusual partitioning
schemes.
: rmt.c is Copyright (C) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
:
: All rights reserved.
:
: Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
: provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
: duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
: advertising materials, and other materials related to such
: distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
: by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
: University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
: from this software without specific prior written permission.
: THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
: IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
: WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Berkeley is nice that it doesn't require this kind of mess.
- Brian
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