GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 508320
license issue of file Makefile.in.in
Last modified: 2008-02-24 23:19:47 UTC
Dear intltool maintainers, I've noticed a bug in your Makefile.in.in that seems to conflict with the debian policy. Firstly, "This file file be copied and used freely without restrictions." does probably mean "This file can[...]". But the real problem is here: "# Please note that the actual code is *not* freely available." There is no definition of what is meant that is not freely available. If the code of Makefile.in.in isn't freely available it would be a huge problem. No fear, it isn't meant this way. Afaik your file is just a patched version of the one of gettextized. That, however, has a clean license header: # Makefile for PO directory in any package using GNU gettext. # Copyright (C) 1995-1997, 2000-2007 by Ulrich Drepper <drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu> # # This file can be copied and used freely without restrictions. It can # be used in projects which are not available under the GNU General Public # License but which still want to provide support for the GNU gettext # functionality. # Please note that the actual code of GNU gettext is covered by the GNU # General Public License and is *not* in the public domain. # # Origin: gettext-0.17 This has a completely different meaning. Please use that header instead if possible (IANAL, but i don't think that you're allowed to change it) or - maybe even better - apply your patches to the newest version of the original file. I know that many, many applications, especially GNOME ones, contain the wrong file now. It would be great if those could be patched, too. In short term, i guess, patching all debian packages with your fixed file could address this issue. If you disagree or don't think that this is a bug at all, please tell. Best regards, Werner
forgot to mention that the term "GNU Public License" used in your Makefile.in.in is also wrong and doesn't name a valid license.
This is being tracked in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=459933 for Debian.
(In reply to comment #0) > Please use that header instead if possible (IANAL, but i don't think that > you're allowed to change it) or - maybe even better - apply your patches to the > newest version of the original file. There are bugs here, the typos for example. However, the header and license on the file may be changed, as the original is under public domain. The file in intltool is not copied from gettext, but in fact is copied from glib, which has roughly the exact same text as the Makefile.in.in that is shipped with intltool. Very few lines are changed in the comment header. I will fix the typos and clarify a few things, but I don't think we should copy the Makefile header from gettext directly. It's Makefile, and ours are both still under the public domain, but as we are not part of gettext, much of their comment header does not make sense for intltool, specifically the parts referring to its inclusion in gettext.
Fixed typos, removed extra confusing line, and updated author/copyright info in SVN.