Bug#81708: flash: to gpl or not to gpl
On Mon, May 28, 2001 at 05:08:46PM +0200, Bart Martens wrote:
> How's the progress on this ITP? Who is currently working on
> this? I think officially Robert McQueen is "owner" of this
> ITP. Is Matt Zimmerman taking over?
>
> I see that this ITP is about trying to package flash with GPL.
> Are you sure flash _can_ be packaged GPL? Have you found
> solutions for the problems described in the mails in this ITP?
>
> If flash cannot be packaged GPL, do you intent to package it
> in the non-free section for flash support for Mozilla?
The trouble is that it includes some components from the Netscape Plugin SDK
which are not redistributable (as far as I can tell). This makes the package
itself illegal to distribute, regardless of any Debian policy. If it were to
be packaged, it would be necessary to create a new tarball which contained only
the unencumbered components, and distribute that. Or, if there is cooperation
from the upstream author, maybe he/she will remove those components, or provide
a separate distribution which does not contain them. I don't know whether
anyone has contacted the upstream author yet.
> I see that flash is already packaged for Netscape. I'd like to see flash
> packaged for Mozilla. Should we package flash again separately for Mozilla?
> Or can we modify the existing package to support flash for both Netscape and
> Mozilla (this is a question on dependencies)?
Flash is included in the most recent builds of Netscape 4, there is no flash
package in Debian.
> When I surf with Mozilla to a flash-only website (yuk), I'm
> suggested to download a tarball from Macromedia. The most
> straightforward solution seems to be to package that tarball
> into a Debian package. Or should we use another source than
> Macromedia to make a package for flash for Mozilla?
I haven't examined that tarball; are you sure that it works with Mozilla? It
is probably intended for Netscape 4 users.
> I'm interested in packaging the Macromedia tarball into a
> package, unless _this_ ITP produces a legal and usable
> package for flash for Mozilla within a reasonable time.
>
> Is it legal to simply package flash from Macromedia in the
> non-free section? I guess not. Should someone ask Macromedia
> for permission? How is this officially done? I guess an
> official Debian developer, which I'm not (yet?), should ask
> Macromedia...
You should examine the tarball from Macromedia and read the license agreement
to determine whether it is redistributable. If it is, it can go into non-free.
--
- mdz
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