On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 7:12 PM, Michal Kubecek <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 05:24:27PM -0400, Leyne, Sean wrote:
> > > while reviewing Firebird 2.5 packages for OpenSuSE Factory, our legal
> team
> > > noticed that copyright notice on top of extern/SfIO/include/stdio.h
> claims
> > > that it contains "certain software code or other information
> proprietary to
> > > AT&T Corp."
> >
> > What is the problem with the FB packages having this file?
>
> I'm not sure it really is a problem but given the text on top of the
> file, I can't be sure it is OK either, especially when our legal team
> considers it to be bad enough to exclude it from OpenSuSE. This is why
> I wanted to discuss it in the list. (Yes, I too would prefer to live
> in a world where a developer doesn't need law school more then computer
> science.)
>
> The problem I see is that the source tarball contains a file claiming it
> contains a code proprietary to AT&T and not referring to any license.
> For anyone who gets the tarball it means they don't now what they can or
> cannot do with it - and therefore with the source tree as a whole.
>
> > There is no restriction on the distribution of the file.
>
> Which is not clear from the file itself. The page referenced in
> extern/SfIO/read.me indicates SfIO is distributed under EPL but
>
> 1. The version from the page is different so strictly speaking there
> is no source saying the file we include is covered by EPL as well.
> 2. Nowhere in the downloaded tarball any license is mentioned, only
> the comment about "containing code proprietary to AT&T" is there
> 3. Actually, the page doesn't even say SfIO is distributed under EPL,
> it just requests you to confirm you agree with EPL to allow you to
> download it.
>
> This is quite unfortunate as e.g. the version embedded in ksh sources
> explicitly mentions EPL and refers to URL where it can be found (and
> there is no mention of proprietary code, just a simple copyright notice).
In debian/ubuntu the files are removed
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+source/firebird2.5/+copyright
* Removed sources with non-free/missing licensing
The following files are removed as they contain only copyright
information without any license allowing their distribution. Luckily,
they are not needed when building on Debiian.
- builds/install/arch-specific/solaris/
- src/install/arch-specific/solx86gcc/CS/postinstall.in
- src/install/arch-specific/solx86gcc/CS/postremove.in
- src/install/arch-specific/solx86gcc/CS/preinstall.in
- src/msgs/templates.sql
- extern/SfIO/
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