Re: [Enigma-devel] Copyrights

[unknown man]

Sorry to open this can of worms again...

> Neither am I, and I think sooner or later we will have to ask the GNU or
> the debian-legal people.  I just noticed that rocks & diamonds was
> removed from debian 3.0r-2 due to license problems with content from
> commercial sources.  I haven't been able to find more details so far,
> but I dearly hope Enigma won't go the same road.
>
> [Btw, I just found a few details: it seems the author of
> rocks-n-diamonds simply copied some of the graphics and sounds from a
> commercial Boulder Dash game, so we're definitely in a better legal
> position.]

Yes, besides in real life there is no such thing as a copyright problem if 
the copyright owners don't press charges, and it really looks like 
dongleware could not care.

> Not necessarily a problem, since it's always possible to explicitly
> allow this sort of "linking".  It's only a matter of changing a few
> lines in the COPYING file.

Yes, but afaik the linking rules can only apply to binary versions of files 
as copyright law does not protect against use, only distribution. This would 
mean that no change at all is needed. I Belive that it is safe to assume 
this.
> > I would assume this is the case so distribution of the sokoban levels
> > is straightforward. You cannot distribute the sokban levels as part of
> > the enigma package as the pakage as a whole is under the gpl. However
> > you can make it a second 'extention' package that is distributed under
> > a different licence. You can also package the extention package in an
> > installer (such as the windows installer) as long as you give the user
> > the option not to install the 'extention' and make it clear that it is
> > a different package and is licenced under a different licence.

> In fact, that may turn out to be necessary, likewise for the Oxyd and
> Esprit level packs.  But we're at a point where we need the advice of
> experts...

The big problem, I belive, is the levels (and anything else) that is under a 
different licence being distributed with Enigms. This is *only* a problem if 
you assert that the ENTIRE package is distributed under the GPL. RMS prefers 
that GNU packages be distributed under a SINGLE licence (be it even i 
licence that says 'you may use the program under either the MPL or GPL. If 
you wish for your changes to be available under only one of these licences, 
please replace this message with the message specified in that licence') 
that allows use under a free software licence.

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