[dri-devel folks: please copy debian-x on replies as I am not subscribed to dri-devel] Hi guys, I am the XFree86 package maintainer for the Debian Project, and one of my users pointed out a problem to me: the README.DRI and README.DRIcomp documentation files are not licensed such that anyone can change them. As DRI evolves, this will increasingly become a hindrance. Documentation has enough problems getting out of date as it is without bad licensing making it a copyright infringement to try and fix that. The Debian Project does distribute materials like this that fail our "Free Software Guidelines"[1], but we have to do in a portion of our archives that is avowedly unofficial, so if I wanted to keep these files as part of the XFree86 Debian package I would have to move all of XFree86 out of Debian "main" (the official distribution), which simply isn't practical. Likewise, the XFree86 Project has its own licensing rules, and while they are in some ways more flexible than the Debian Project when it comes to making exceptions, I'm sure they would prefer DRI docs that are licensed consistently with the rest of the XFree86 distribution. If the MIT/X11 license is good enough for the Xlib manual, it should be good enough for DRI documentation as well. While I can't speak for the XFree86 Project on this issue, Debian will continue to have this need even if XFree86 does not. I mention the XFree86 Project's licensing policy because while licenses like the GNU GPL and GNU FDL (as long as there are no Invariant Sections or Cover Texts) are acceptable to the Debian Project, they are not to XFree86, and in making this call for freely licensed documentation, I am seeking a solution that will unquestionably be satisfactory to both projects from a licensing perspective. I've been in touch with Jens Owen and Brian Paul at Tungsten Graphics, and I was advised to put out this call for volunteers. They have been trying to get a response from what used to be VA Linux Systems for several months, and none has been forthcoming. It therefore seems unlikely that we'll get the existing documents relicensed. So, is anyone up to the task? [1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines -- G. Branden Robinson | Debian GNU/Linux | kernel panic -- causal failure branden@debian.org | universe will now reboot http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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