[Dev] [GNU-linux-libre] (no subject)

Michał Masłowski mtjm at mtjm.eu
Sat Aug 2 08:33:33 GMT 2014


> * The man pages in man-pages-posix-2003-a.tar.xz are non-free

Debian has them in nonfree, Parabola includes them.

The license is at [0], includes the following:

  Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice
  and the corresponding notices within each POSIX manual page are
  retained on any distribution, and the nroff source is included.
  Modifications to the text are permitted so long as any conflicts with
  the standard are clearly marked as such in the text.

Problems:

- are derivatives that aren't using nroff allowed?

- if conflicts with the standard need to be marked in every place where
  they are, it practically cannot be used as base for documentation of
  implementations or competing standards; this is why Debian puts it in
  nonfree

> * Several man pages in man-pages-3.53 don't allow modification. A list
> of several is at
> https://nopaste.linux-dev.org/?186568&download but I probably missed some

What license are they under?  intro.1 in Parabola's man-pages 3.70-1
looks free.

> * In libical-1.0.tar.xz in the directory
> src/Net-ICal-Libical/netical_wrap.c it says "Permission is
> granted to distribute this file in any manner provided this notice
> remains intact." There might be
> other non-free files too but this is just an example

It's generated by SWIG, we should check the files it's generated from.
"in any manner" might include modified versions, I'm not sure.

> * The Gnuplot package only allows modification through "patches" and
> has several other problems
> (more info here: https://nopaste.linux-dev.org/?186585&download)

The problems listed there:

- modified source can be distributed only as original source + patches
- anonymous changes are not allowed
- bf_test.c and color.c are just nonfree, with no license

The first issue is explicitly allowed by the free software definition.
Is the requirement to "provide your name and address as the primary
contact for the support of your modified version" acceptable?

> * In ilmbase-1.0.3.tar.xz the directory IexMath/ has non-free software in it

Looks ok in 2.1.0.  List specific nonfree files and licenses?

> * In imlib-1.9.15.tar.xz the file Imlib/sprintf.c is licensed under
> the Artistic License 1.0 (there
> may be other non-free files also)

Imlib/snprintf.c in Parabola.

Please include the text you linked to at paste sites in the mail next
time, such links often expire while mailing list archives are useful for
years.

[0] http://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//non-free/m/manpages-posix/manpages-posix_2.16-1_copyright
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