On 10-Aug-2009, Sebastien Delafond wrote: > On Aug/10, Ben Finney wrote: > > Probably the best way to do that is to include the above file in > > the source package somehow. If you could convince the upstream > > maintainer to make that file a standard part of the source > > distribution that would be simpler. > > I've tried, but the upstream author aims at reducing friction with > the emacs development community, which in its wide majority refuses > to dual-license under GPL+GDFL, instead thinking Debian should > revisit its position and allow GFDL-licensed items to be packaged.
Just so that I understand: You're saying that the copy of the manual distributed in Debian *is* licensed to recipients under GPLv3? In which case, we need clear text granting that license, especially if there is some chance of dispute in the community over whether that license applies. My opinion is that a URL isn't sufficient for this (they are too prone to change or disappear after the fact); we would need to include in the source package the very text of the license grant, in as close to “original” form as we can. If the copy of the manual in Debian is from the upstream author, can it not have the GPLv3 license grant in the same tarball? > Nothing new here, I'm merely hinting that the inclusion of this > dual-licensed documentation in the upstream source package is quite > unlikely :) In that case, it's even more important to make crystal clear, to anyone who gets the work from Debian now or in the future, where our license to redistribute under the GPLv3 comes from. > I will apply your patch, and then I believe we can close this bug ? The patch only makes sense if the claims being made are verifiably true, so the above issues would need to be dealt with also. > Cheers, and again thanks a lot for the clarification (especially > under the form of a patch, heh), Thanks to you, too, for working to make the situation slightly more sane :-) -- \ “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are | `\ not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer | _o__) to reality.” —Albert Einstein, 1983 | Ben Finney <b...@benfinney.id.au>
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