Forwarding this message from debian-legal since it shows what is being done about this bug:
---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Re: IEEE copyrighted files in vhdl tools Date: Tuesday 19 December 2006 09:06 From: "Wesley J. Landaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: debian-legal@lists.debian.org Cc: José "L. Redrejo" Rodríguez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On Tuesday 19 December 2006 08:50, José L. Redrejo Rodríguez wrote: > This file is needed to use any vhdl compiling/simulation tool, and I've > later noticed that ghdl [2], already accepted in Debian, contains more > vhdl headers, and even body vhdl copyrighted files that are delivered as > binary libraries, i.e. object files. I've filled a bug[3] trying to > clarify ghdl situation too. > So, in short, I'm not legally expert at all, and specially if the text > is not in my native language, so I would like to know if somebody could > help me to clarify the situation of: > - uploading freehdl (with one vhdl header) to main (noticing the ieee > copyrighted file in debian/copyright) > - uploading it to non-free > - how this can affect to ghdl, already in main and ready to be released > with Etch. For GHDL, the IEEE VHDL body files should not be there--I didn't actually notice that until you filed a bug on it. They are compiled just to get consistent interfaces--the implementation in the body files is not actually used (e.g. numeric_std functions are implemented internally). So there is a problem here that I will fix. For the header files, they are not copyrightable as they just declare an interface. The comments are the only thing that could be copyrightable. But, I think I may just rewrite the whole set of headers to remove any doubt--this is a pretty trivial exercise. If FreeHDL only has one header and you are really worried about it, you might just want to rewrite it from scratch. (And no, unfortunately GHDL isn't going to be in etch no matter what, because of an unresolved bug in GNU ld on ia64 and now the freeze.) -- Wesley J. Landaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <xmpp:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> OpenPGP FP: 4135 2A3B 4726 ACC5 9094 0097 F0A9 8A4C 4CD6 E3D2 ------------------------------------------------------- -- Wesley J. Landaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <xmpp:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> OpenPGP FP: 4135 2A3B 4726 ACC5 9094 0097 F0A9 8A4C 4CD6 E3D2
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