From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
Subject: pkg-config
To: James Henstridge <james@daa.com.au>, Tim Janik <timj@gtk.org>
to: Havoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com>
cc: hugo@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 04:11:46 -0600 (MDT)
Reply-to: rms@gnu.org

pkg-config is trying to be free software, but the implementation
of that has some serious problems.  hgayosso@gnu.org reports:

    I found that a file called COPYING is included in the distribution and
    it contains the GNU GPL, but some files like:

      pkg.c
      parse.c
      main.c

    do not contain any copyright or licensing notice.  I guess this makes
    them non-free software because there is no explicit permission to use,
    copy or redistribute them.

He is right--without notices giving permission to copy and change them,
it is copyright infringement to do so.  He continues,

    I also found other files that contain the following notice:

    /* (C) 1998 Red Hat Software, Inc. -- Licensing details are in the COPYING
       file accompanying popt source distributions, available from 
       ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/code/popt */


    I guess this is not acceptable because if the user can't get to that
    FTP site and find the file 'COPYING', then he/she will have absolutely
    no idea under which license those files are released, also it presents
    a moving target, because in 1998 it might be the GNU GPL, but today it
    could be a proprietary license (unlikely, but an option).

He is right on all this count also--and the problem is not just hypothetical;
it has already happened.  He says there is no file at that URL.

You can resolve these problems simply by putting the proper copyright
and license notices on each source file.  Hugo thinks that the license
intended to be at that URL was the one below.  After you verify that,
would you please put the license into each of the source files?  Then
the programs will be free software and there will be no risk of losing
track of the license accidentally.  The problem will be completely
solved.

Please respond and tell us how you are solving the problem.



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