Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of The New MH Mail Handling System

[Ken Hornstein]

>       What you absolutely need to ensure that the software is actually
>Free Software is permission from the copyright holder of all files to do
>so.
>
>The simplest way is probably to get an e-mail from the author stating
>that the intention is to release it under a free software license that is
>compatible with the GNU GPL. The safest way is that the author himself
>add licensing information to the distribution but this is unlikely to happen
>if he does not have time to devote to it.

Well, this is a bit of a weird one.

As far back as I can tell, individual copyrights were never on each file
in the original MH distribution back from the RAND Corporation.  They just
had one COPYRIGHT file, which was a "modified BSD" copyright.

During the recent incarnation as nmh, the copyright was changed to be
held by "The Authors of Nmh", and per a discussion on the nmh-workers
mailing list, I qualify as an author (since I submitted code that was
included in the distribution), and the consensus was that I could run
the project.

>       Assuming the license chosen it the GNU GPL, once you have permission
>you should follow the instructions at the end of the GNU GPL itself to apply
>it to the software.

I belive we'd still like to stick with a modified BSD copyright for now,
if that's okay.

>       In the present state noone can say for sure that the software is
>indeed Free Software and this is a problem to host it on Savannah. Could you
>try to solve this and submit the project again ? 

I understand where you're coming from.  Let me ask; what would satisfy your
requirements?  Going back to the _original_ authors at the RAND Corporation?
Because that's where nearly all of the source code files come from.  I'm
not sure it's even possible to figure out who there would acknowledge
MH at this point.

To me, it seems pretty clear that since there is a COPYRIGHT file with
a free software copyright, the original authors of MH intended that it
be free; I suspect at that time it wasn't considered as important for
a copyright notice to be in each of the original files.  However, _if_ nmh
is hosted on savannah, I can assure you that my first step would be to
add an explicit copyright to each and every source file to resolve that
problem.  Would that address the issue?

I know, this is a rather complicated one; I'm not sure what is the right
answer.  I do respect your position regarding savannah and free software,
and my goal is to be compatible with that position.

--Ken