[Pkg-firebird-general] Request for comments for ibwebadmin package

[Colin Watson]

On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 09:16:52AM -0400, Grzegorz B. Prokopski wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 19:12, Remco Seesink wrote:
> > I am looking for comments about my packaging of ibwebadmin.
> > Testers are also welcome.
> 
> Hi Remco,
> 
> Technically I looked fine for me.  I have not tested it at runtime
> though. In the non-technical part - I see troubles with the
> copyright/licensing stuff.
> 
> 1. Why do *you* add the exception that permits for linking w/ some
> GPL-incompatible program
> a) in a debian-specific diff?  The exception has to be granted by
> upstream and they have to release a version that has this exception.
> You must not add it yourself!
> b) at the top of LICENSE file, which is otherwise pure GPL? This
> exception seems to fit more into a file that would be called i.e.
> COPYING, where the copying informations would be held and which
> would contain the "exception" and reference to the pure GPL in LICENSE
> file.
> 
> I saw you already contacted upstream about it, but *they* should release
> a version that contains the new COPYING rules.

I haven't looked at this particular case, but it should be just fine to
say "the copyright owner gave permission to do this" (as long as it's
not specific to Debian, etc.), without necessarily having to wait for a
new upstream release. Of course, I'd be inclined to include the full
text of the e-mail in question.

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]