Re: bib-fr

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard <mpg@elzevir.fr> wrote:

> I just wanted to check something : did you previously exclude it due to licence
> problems? A friend of mine told me bib-fr was in sarge's version of teTeX but
> not in etch, so I wonder whether it was purposefully removed and why.

According to archive.debian.org, it was neither in teTeX 1.0.2 nor in
teTeX 2 (and it's not in oldstable).

> Anyway, could you please confirm if you are happy with the current licence
> statements in the files (which are sometimes incomplete, though I strongly
> believe the files are meant to be free, and as far as upstream TL is concerned,
> Karl said he is happy with them)?

Well, let's have a look:

LPPL version x or later: 
     abbrv-fr.bst
     abbrvnat-fr.bst
     alpha-fr.bst
     plain-fr.bst
     plainnat-fr.bst
     unsrt-fr.bst
     unsrtnat-fr.bst

none at all
     ieeetr-fr.bst
     siam-fr.bst

unclear
     apalike-fr.bst

apalike-fr has no license statement for the french changes, but I doubt
they warrant a copyright. Otherwise it has the same license as
apalike.bst, which says:

% Copying of this file is allowed, provided that if you make any changes at all
% you name it something other than `apalike.bst'.
% This restriction helps ensure that all copies are identical.

Personally, I tend to accept this, interpreting "name it" as "identify
it", including path and the "identify to the base interpreter" thingy.

But the files which don't have any license statement are problemetic, in
particular since they do have a copyright assignment (so no indication
of their being public domain).  Is there an archived discussion with
Karl about this?

> If you think that the files can't be included in Debian in their current state
> for some reason, I'll contact the author and ask him if he can fix it, 

That would be best anyway. 

Regards, Frank
-- 
Dr. Frank Küster
Debian Developer (TeXLive)
VCD Aschaffenburg-Miltenberg, ADFC Miltenberg
B90/Grüne KV Miltenberg