On Mon, 14 Dec 2015 21:07:40 +0100 Eugene V. Lyubimkin wrote: > Hi Francesco and all,
Hello Eugene, hello FTP Masters, > > Thanks for your interest. You're welcome. Thanks to you for replying! > > > I cannot fully understand how those files could be derived from > > the ISO files in the first place, if the ISO files are not legally > > modifiable. > > Maybe OASIS obtained a special permission from ISO, but this does > > not seem to be documented. > > I am afraid I don't get it. > > OASIS say [...] they are the copyright holder and their license is > DFSG-free. You suspect OASIS breaches copyright of ISO, > and the source for this suspect is license headers written by OASIS > themselves? Well, they themselves say that one of the files under consideration is | Derived, in part, from: | | * iso-pub.gml | | Copyright (C) 1986 International Organization for Standardization | Permission to copy in any form is granted for use with | conforming SGML systems and applications as defined in | ISO 8879, provided this notice is included in all copies. and similarly for other files. Hence, they basically say that some OASIS files (that they distribute under DFSG-free terms) are derived, in part, from some ISO files which do *not* grant any permission to modify. Without any additional explanation, this sounds like a copyright violation. Maybe it's not, but there has to be some explanation of how it can avoid being a copyright violation... Perhaps the ISO files have been assessed to not be copyrighted? but this is not documented! Perhaps ISO granted some permission to re-license the ISO files? but this is not documented, either! And so forth... Or maybe it is indeed a copyright violation done by OASIS by oversight... Maybe OASIS will promptly act to fix this issue (for instance, by persuading ISO to re-license the ISO files...). > > You propose we contact OASIS and ask whether they have right to > distribute those files? One possible solution is seeking clarification from OASIS: maybe they have a perfectly valid and convincing explanation and it just needs to be documented properly! > If they say 'yes', how one is > supposed to verify that they really do? A simple "yes" answer would not suffice: they need to provide a convincing explanation... > In what circumstances they could say 'no'? For example, in case they violated the ISO copyright by mistake. > > Or you propose we contact ISO and ask whether OASIS breaches their > copyright? Another possible strategy is getting in touch with ISO and persuade them to re-license the ISO files in a DFSG-free and permissive manner. The new license should be a simple permissive non-copyleft one, compatible with pretty everything. As I have already said, one more possible solution is finding DFSG-free replacements for the ISO files and asking OASIS to base their files on those DFSG-free replacements, in stead of the ISO files. > > > The files in question (fbreader/fbreader/data/formats/docbook/*) > didn't change, at least, after 2009. Since that time, > fbreader has been gone through NEW queue at least in 2010 [...] > and in 2015 [...] With all due respect for the FTP Masters, mistakes *can* happen. It would not be the first time that a package with non-free (or even undistributable) content gets accepted in Debian main, by oversight. > > > Given above, I am going to assume, for now, that those files are fine. > Dear archive masters (To'ed), please re-open this > bug if they are not, and in that case files will be not included. Dropping the OASIS files from package fbreader is the last resort solution, assuming that those files are not strictly needed for the package to provide significant functionality. Please note that, as I have previously said, one FTP Assistant confirmed that files under the ISO license are not fit for Debian main: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2015/12/msg00000.html Hence, I do *not* agree that this bug report should have been closed simply assuming that everything is fine. Please reopen the bug report and investigate the issue. Thanks for your time. Bye. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/ There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
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