T. V. Raman -
Another Debian developer noticed that the emacspeak sources have
several contradictory copyright notices, and questions whether it
meets the Debian Free Software Guidlines. We'd appreciate some
clarification on two points:
What copyright actually covers emacspeak?
Is modification and distribution of derived works permitted?
Specifically, does the license meet the following two requirements of
the DFSG:
Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow
them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the
original software.
Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in
modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch
files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program
at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of
software built from modified source code. The license may require
derived works to carry a different name or version number from the
original software. (This is a compromise. The Debian Project
encourages all authors to not restrict any files, source or binary,
from being modified.)
The bug report, with a more complete discussion, follows.
- Jim Van Zandt
------- Start of forwarded message -------
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: emacspeak: might be non-free
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 12:18:57 +0100
Package: emacspeak
Version: 17.0-1
Severity: severity
The copyright of emacspeak is confusing, and the package is possibly non-free:
debian/copyright claims two contradicting licenses for the
packages. The first seems to be present in some source files:
,----
| Copyright:
|
| Source files contain this copyright notice:
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
| ;;{{{ Copyright:
|
| ;;;Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997 T. V. Raman Adobe Systems Incorporated
| ;;; Copyright (c) 1996 by T. V. Raman
| ;;; All Rights Reserved.
| ;;;
| ;;; This file is not part of GNU Emacs, but the same permissions apply.
| ;;;
| ;;; GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
| ;;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
| ;;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
| ;;; any later version.
| ;;;
| [...]
`----
On the other hand, there is a file etc/COPYRIGHT which seems to be a
copyright file for the whole package. The license therein is non-free
because it does not explicitly allow modifcation:
,----
| ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
| ;;; Author: T. V. Raman, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| ;;;Copyright (C) 1995 -- 2002, T. V. Raman
| ;;; All Rights Reserved
| ;;; Author: T. V. Raman, Digital Equipment Corporation. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| ;;; Copyright 1994, 1995 by Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA.
| ;;; All Rights Reserved
| ;;; $Id: COPYRIGHT,v 17.0 2002/11/23 01:29:08 raman Exp $
| ;;;Permission to use, copy, and distribute this software and its documentation
| ;;;for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
| ;;;copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice
| ;;;and this permission notice, including the disclaimers below, appear in
| ;;;supporting documentation, and that the name of Adobe and Digital not be
| ;;;used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
| ;;;without specific, written prior permission.
|
| Digital Equipment Corporation, and T.V. Raman
| ;;;DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
| ;;;WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL Digital
| ;;;Equipment Corporation, or T.V. Raman BE LIABLE
| ;;;FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
| ;;;WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
| ;;;ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION OR ANY ACTION OF
| ;;;ANY OTHER KIND WHATSOEVER, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
| ;;;PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
| ;;; Permission to use, copy, and distribute this software and its
| ;;; documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
| ;;; that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
| ;;; copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
| ;;; documentation, and that the name of Adobe Systems not be used in
| ;;; advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
without
| ;;; specific, written prior permission.
`----
(this is repeated for Adobe, and the disclaimer once more for DEC)
This file is still present in the current upstream version.
Additionally, the source contains a lot of sound files without
specific copyright notice. Some are probably just sounds needed to
synthesize speech, and may not be copyrightable, or be spoken and
copyright by Mr. Raman. But files like
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/bbc-world-service.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/science-in-action-bbc.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-biz.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-si.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-cnn.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-sports.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-es.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-top-stories.ram
emacspeak-17.0/realaudio/radio/cnn-hn.ram
Do sound like somebody else had a copyright on them.
Minor issues with the copyright file:
,----
| Emacspeak is written and maintained by T. V. Raman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
`----
But does not say who are the copyright holders; from the later parts it
seems that two companies are involved, too.
,----
| It was downloaded from
| ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/raman/emacspeak/
`----
However, the current sources are at
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/emacspeak/
Regards, Frank
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