Re: Serious doubts about the distributability of a file

[Vincent Fourmond]

Francesco Poli wrote:
 Probably OK in non-free given that Debian is a non-profit
 organisation.
 
 Wait, wait: IIUC, we are talking about a work which is licensed
 under the terms of the GNU LGPL v2 or later as a whole, but includes
 code licensed under a non-profit-only license.
 
 The two licenses are incompatible, as you noticed, hence the Debian
 Project has no valid permission to redistribute the work, even in
 non-free.  More precisely, in order to comply with Section 4 of LGPLv2,
 the Debian Project should distribute the whole work under the terms of
 the LGPL, but this is impossible without violating the UNC Chapel Hill
 license.
 
 Consequently, I would say that the work is legally undistributable
 (regardless of the archive section Debian chooses to distribute from).

  That is what I was afraid of. We'll have to play with the upstream of
the package so that this code is not used anymore (there seem to be a
replacement around). Many thanks,

Vincent

-- 
Vincent Fourmond, Debian Developer
http://vince-debian.blogspot.com/
-- pretty boring signature, isn't it ?


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Serious doubts about the distributability of a file

[Vincent Fourmond]

[please CC me and the bug for replies, thanks]

  Hello,

  The package vegastrike (in main) contains two files whose copyright
header is reproduced integrally in this message. It seems to me that
the copyright notices conflict, and effectively render the file not
distributable, but I am not quite sure; if this file is effectively a
derived work from the work copyrighted by the Universtity of North
Carolina, it is not distributable. It all depends on the meaning of
based on. What do you think ? What should be done ?

  Thanks

  Vincent


/*
Copyright (C) 1998,2000 by Written by Alex Pfaffe

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Library General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*/

// The following classes are utility classes for the RAPID collision detection
// algorithm. The code is based on the UNC implementation of the RAPID
// algorithm:

/*\

  Copyright 1995 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  All Rights Reserved.

  Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and its
  documentation for educational, research and non-profit purposes, without
  fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the
  above copyright notice and the following three paragraphs appear in all
  copies.

  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL BE
  LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR
  CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE
  USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY
  OF NORTH CAROLINA HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
  DAMAGES.

  THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY
  WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE SOFTWARE
  PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN AS IS BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF
  NORTH CAROLINA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT,
  UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

  The authors may be contacted via:

  US Mail: S. Gottschalk
   Department of Computer Science
   Sitterson Hall, CB #3175
   University of N. Carolina
   Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175

  Phone:   (919)962-1749

  EMail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]


\**/


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