netpbm-Port
Chuck Swiger
cswiger at mac.com
Wed Jul 16 10:44:43 PDT 2003
Andreas Barth wrote:
> at debian we're having problems with netpbm. This includes:
> - the many different licences that need permanent licence auditing
> - unwillingness to use manpages
> - inconsistent interface
> More at http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/debian-devel-200307/msg00542.html
> Is this a sole debian problem, or are you having similar problems? If
> so, it would be time-efficient to tackle the problems together. I'm
> unknown how FreeBSD works, and not subscribed to any list, so please
> send me direct answers after a decision has been made.
The FreeBSD port of NetPBM is marked "NO_CDROM", which means that FreeBSD
doesn't distribute this software on the CD's that Wind River and other FreeBSD
distributors sell. You're right about the license situation being complex, but
fortunately one can turn most of that problem over to the maintainer and the
guys at sourceforge.net. In particular, this utility, mentioned in
docs/COPYRIGHT.PATENT:
/* hpcdtoppm (Hadmut's pcdtoppm) v0.6
* Copyright (c) 1992, 1993, 1994 by Hadmut Danisch (danisch at ira.uka.de).
* Permission to use and distribute this software and its
* documentation for noncommercial use and without fee is hereby granted,
* provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
* both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
* supporting documentation. It is not allowed to sell this software in
* any way. This software is not public domain.
*/
...violates the Open Source Definition, and should be brought to the attention
of the maintainer for replacement or removal.
It is Bryan's responsibility to make sure that the distribution files of a
project hosted at SourceForge are compliant with the OSD, largely so that
organizations like Debian, FreeBSD, and the like are able to redistribute such
projects without restriction.
Note that I am not criticizing Hadmut Danisch's license; I've got code out there
under very similiar terms, such as Angband, and I've been dealing with some of
the same license issues myself. In other words, this is familiar territory.
It may be the case that the above license and the OSD represent a conflict that
cannot be resolved, but:
http://www.pkix.net/~chuck/Licenses/NRL.html
...is an attempt to split the difference that might be of interest to you or others.
--
-Chuck
PS: Are you a member of SourceForge, Andreas? If not, I can file a support
request with regard to this matter if you like.
PPS: I don't regard HTML as an adequate replacement for manpages, either.
Telling someone to go to an URL doesn't help one bit if they have a standalone
system without net connectivity. On the other hand, the solution to that aspect
is even easier: if Bryan doesn't want to maintain manpages, fine: either someone
else needs to step up and do so, or else it won't be done.
More information about the freebsd-ports
mailing list