Bug#115883: problems with packaging gnomepq for Debian
Having decided that gnomepq was useful and worthy of inclusion in
Debian, I finally managed to track down a source for gnomepq, at:
http://downloads.sympatico.ca/linux/files/gnome/adm/gnomepq-0.2.tgz
However, the following things prevent me from packaging it for Debian:
1. There is no official upstream website that works, leading me to
believe that new versions are few and far between. This address is
oft-quoted but never functional:
http://shogun.penguinpowered.com:81/~peppe/
2. The only license terms in the program are in object.cc, and it is
uncertain whether they apply to the whole program, or that file taken
from somewhere else. The terms are:
* Copyright (c) 1997
* Petter 'PePPE' Nordholm, University of Karlskrona/Ronneby.
* All rigths reserved
*
* All use if this source and program is permitted.
*
* SINCE THIS PROGRAM IS FREE, IT COMES WITH "NO WARRANTIES". THE AUTHOR
* IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS
* PROGRAM; THE USER TAKES ALL SUCH RESPONSIBILITY.
3. Those license terms contain two spelling errors which cast ambiguity
on the freeness of the license. Namely that it says 'all use if ...
permitted', rather than 'all use of ... permitted'. I'm assuming that's
a typo rather than poor grammar, but this assumption is not sufficient
for me to be satisfied the software meets Debian's Free Software
Guidelines:
http://www.debian.org/intro/free
4. Even assuming the typo, the license itself is ambiguous. The term
'all use' could arguably *not* include modification and redistribution.
In short, if the author, who I have attempted to CC this message to,
wishes users of this program to explicitly be granted all freedoms with
it and it's source, and hence be eligible to be packaged for Debian, he
should consider a BSD license:
http://www.debian.org/misc/bsd.license
It must also be made clear that the license applies to all files in the
program, by including it in each, or perhaps just a LICENSE file in the
source distribution. And ideally, the new version of the source would be
available somewhere on-line so that subsequent versions are locatable,
even if this is just via freshmeat.
And as a personal opinion, this is a nifty program which fills a little
niche in GNOME and I'd love to see it packaged and made available in
Debian. I hope these problems can be fixed.
Regards,
Rob
PS: As an aside... after I close gnomepq via the WM, it doesn't
actually exit and return the terminal to me.
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