Hi Mark, I'm a contributor to the gNewSense project [1], a GNU/Linux distribution aiming to comply with the FSF's free system distribution guidelines [2].
I came across your snprintf code in several of our packages. I would like to clarify the license situation of this code with you. In snprintf 2.2, the header of snprintf.c says: "This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the "Frontier Artistic License" which comes with this Kit." The revision history section a bit further says for "V2.0 (never released)": "relaxed license terms: The Artistic License now applies. You may still apply the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE as was distributed with previous versions, if you prefer;" The credits array says: "@(#)snprintf.c, v2.2: Copyright 1999, Mark Martinec. Frontier Artistic License applies." And your webpage [3] says: 'This program is free software; it is dual licensed, the terms of the "Frontier Artistic License" or the "GNU General Public License" can be chosen at your discretion. The chosen license then applies solely and in its entirety. Both licenses come with this Kit.' Version 2.2 has a LICENSE.txt containing the Frontier Artistic License, but I can't find the GPL text. The FSF considers the Artistic License 1.0 (and hence the practically identical Frontier Artistic License) non-free, so their guidelines don't allow such code in distributions. GPL code is ok, of course. We would like to keep using your useful code in our distribution. Do you still allow snprintf to be published under the GPL? Please keep the gnu-linux-libre mailing list in Cc in your response so that we have a public reference about this. [1] http://www.gnewsense.org/ [2] http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html [3] http://www.ijs.si/software/snprintf/ Kind regards, Sam Geeraerts
