On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 05:00:25PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > B) Copyright 1985, 1986 The Regents of the University of California. > All rights reserved. > > This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by > James A. Woods, derived from original work by Spencer Thomas > and Joseph Orost. > > 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 MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. > > *** The above license is not GPL-compatible. > > Affected files: > xc/lib/font/fontfile/decompress.c > xc/util/compress/Makefile [2] > xc/util/compress/compress.1 [2] > xc/util/compress/compress.c [2] > xc/util/compress/usermem.sh [2] Josh Triplett of the Debian legal list has pointed out[1] that this license is not DFSG-free -- it does not grant permission for modification or redistribution of modified works. (It's not clear to me that modification *without* redistribution is an activity restricted by copyright law in the U.S. -- but redistribution, whether in original or modified form, is, so you need license from the copyright holder to do it.) Thanks for pointing that out, Josh; good catch. My recommended course of action was: > * xc/util/compress looks like old Unix compress to me, but I'm a > youngster and wouldn't way to say for sure. In any event, it's > copyrighted by the Regents, and they can be asked if the Great > Relicensing applies to it. If the Great Relicensing does not apply, xc/util/compress can probably be dropped from the XFree86 source distribution entirely without causing any damage. I'll have to try this. The DFSG-incompatibility of xc/lib/font/fontfile/decompress.c is more serious. Does anyone have any information on whether this code has been relicensed? If not, does anyone know of a way to get an expeditious response about the applicability of the Great Relicensing to particular files from the Office of Technology Licensing of the University of California, Berkeley? Failing both of those, I will probably resolve this for Debian by reimplementing this file with stub functions that fail, and see what happens. [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/debian-legal-200402/msg00105.html -- G. Branden Robinson | I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, Debian GNU/Linux | and say that if God really existed, branden@debian.org | it would be necessary to abolish http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | him. -- Mikhail Bakunin
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