On Monday 25 June 2007, Chris Radek wrote: >On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 05:09:50PM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote: >> Chris: Without trying to be a lawyer cuz I'm not, just curious, what was >> the objection based on? > >Whoah right there! I don't object to anyone making a derivative work >of my truetype-tracer. I encourage such things - that's why I used >the GPL license in the first place. > >I initially contacted Till because there were binaries but no >corresponding source on his webpage. He fixed that immediately, no >problem. He just hadn't put up the source files yet. > >Later, he discovered this other problem about the conflicting >licenses. > >I am not sure if xfig and truetype-tracer are incompatible. The >GPL requires that a derivative work also be distributed under the >GPL, but the xfig license allows the program to become proprietary: > > Any party obtaining a copy of these files is granted, > free of charge, a full and unrestricted irrevocable, > world-wide, paid up, royalty-free, nonexclusive right > and license to deal in this software and documentation > files (the "Software"), including without limitation > the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish > distribute, sublicense and/or sell copies of the > Software, and to permit persons who receive copies from > any such party to do so, with the only requirement > being that the above copyright and this permission > notice remain intact. > >Since Till's right to "modify/merge/publish/distribute" xfig is >"unrestricted", it might be possible for him to use the GPL for the >combined work. I don't know what it means for this "notice" to >"remain intact" but that's a requirement. Is "intact" the same as "in >effect"? I hope someone else who knows more than me can help. > >I think this is a cool and useful project and hope it's possible for >Till to release it under the terms of the GPL. But, I suspect the >intent of the xfig authors was to allow anyone to make the program >proprietary (even if the words don't say exactly that). In that case, >Till unfortunately can't satisfy both licenses and cannot distribute >the combined work. I appreciate his care/attention in this matter. > >Chris
Would this not be considered 100% kosher then if ttt was left out of the xfig packaging, and became an optional subroutine for xfig if the .configure script found it installed? I'm grasping at straws here Chris because this has the potential to be a really great package if all the other bits and pieces can be sorted. I'd hate to see this decent program fall through the same cracks as heyu has managed to get itself into. Its original license also predates the gpl, reads quite similarly but simpler, and the original author, Larry campbell, seems to have crawled under a rock and disappeared, so the current maintainer is powerless to get it actually included in any linux distro that I'm aware of. If you know that particular Larry Campbell, Charles Sullivan would like to contact him to discuss a license change. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) If it smells it's chemistry, if it crawls it's biology, if it doesn't work it's physics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
