Bug #8804 “figlet: non-free licenses and possibly non-distributa...” : Bugs : figlet package : Ubuntu

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Debian Bug Importer (debzilla) wrote on 2004-10-05:

#1

Automatically imported from Debian bug report #274950 http://bugs.debian.org/274950

Revision history for this message

Debian Bug Importer (debzilla) wrote on 2004-10-05:

#2

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Message-Id: <E1CEbDH-0000Ke-00@neverland>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 00:21:47 +0200
From: Francesco Poli <email address hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <email address hidden>
Subject: figlet: non-free licenses and possibly non-distributable files

Package: figlet
Version: 2.2.1-2; reported 2004-10-05
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.2.1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi!

Figlet is in main, but does not seem to comply with the DFSG.
Moreover the copyright file seems inaccurate.

Please refer to
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/09/msg00249.html
and to the following thread, for further discussions.

Looking at the contents of the orig.tar.gz, I found a file named
"Artistic-license.txt" that contains a license similar, but not
identical to /usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic.
I'm told that this license looks like the old Artistic license
with the perl-specific parts removed.
See http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/09/msg00320.html
in the above mentioned thread.
This license is problematic at best.

Actually file figlet.c states that the whole package is under this
`Artistic license':

/****************************************************************************

  FIGlet Copyright 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
  FIGlet Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan
  FIGlet Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet
  Portions written by Paul Burton and Christiaan Keet
  Internet: <email address hidden>
  FIGlet, along with the various FIGlet fonts and documentation, is
    copyrighted under the provisions of the Artistic License (as listed
    in the file "Artistic-license.txt" which is included in this package.
****************************************************************************/

At the same time other files seem to state different things...
See the following.

Makefile:
copyright notices with no permissions granted

# Makefile for figlet version 2.2.1 (13 July 2002)
# adapted from Makefile for figlet version 2.2 (15 Oct 1996)
# Copyright 1993, 1994,1995 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
# Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan
# Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet

chkfont.c, figlist, showfigfonts:
no copyright notice at all
(a clarification that these files are covered by the package
license would be helpful)

crc.c, crc.h, inflate.c, inflate.h, zipio.c, zipio.h:
non-free license

/*
* Copyright (c) 1995, Edward B. Hamrick
*
* Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
* its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
* that
*
* (i) the above copyright notice and the text in this "C" comment block
* appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and
*
* (ii) any modifications to this source file must be sent, via e-mail
* to the copyright owner (currently <email address hidden>) within
* 30 days of such modification.

This is compelled distribution. It does not permit private
modifications.
It fails the Dissident Test and the Desert Island Test.
Non-free.

*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
* EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING...

Message-Id: <E1CEbDH-0000Ke-00@neverland>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 00:21:47 +0200
From: Francesco Poli <frx@firenze.linux.it>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: figlet: non-free licenses and possibly non-distributable files

Package: figlet
Version: 2.2.1-2; reported 2004-10-05
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.2.1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi!

Figlet is in main, but does not seem to comply with the DFSG.
Moreover the copyright file seems inaccurate.

Please refer to
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/09/msg00249.html
and to the following thread, for further discussions.

Looking at the contents of the orig.tar.gz, I found a file named
"Artistic-license.txt" that contains a license similar, but not
identical to /usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic.
I'm told that this license looks like the old Artistic license
with the perl-specific parts removed.
See http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/09/msg00320.html
in the above mentioned thread.
This license is problematic at best.

Actually file figlet.c states that the whole package is under this
`Artistic license':

/****************************************************************************

FIGlet Copyright 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
  FIGlet Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan
  FIGlet Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet
  Portions written by Paul Burton and Christiaan Keet
  Internet: <info@figlet.org>
  FIGlet, along with the various FIGlet fonts and documentation, is
    copyrighted under the provisions of the Artistic License (as listed
    in the file "Artistic-license.txt" which is included in this package.
****************************************************************************/

At the same time other files seem to state different things...
See the following.

Makefile:
copyright notices with no permissions granted

# Makefile for figlet version 2.2.1 (13 July 2002) 
# adapted from Makefile for figlet version 2.2 (15 Oct 1996)
# Copyright 1993, 1994,1995 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
# Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 John Cowan
# Copyright 2002 Christiaan Keet

chkfont.c, figlist, showfigfonts:
no copyright notice at all
(a clarification that these files are covered by the package
license would be helpful)

crc.c, crc.h, inflate.c, inflate.h, zipio.c, zipio.h:
non-free license

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1995, Edward B. Hamrick
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
 * its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
 * that
 *
 * (i)  the above copyright notice and the text in this "C" comment block
 *      appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and
 *
 * (ii) any modifications to this source file must be sent, via e-mail
 *      to the copyright owner (currently hamrick@primenet.com) within 
 *      30 days of such modification.

This is compelled distribution. It does not permit private
modifications.
It fails the Dissident Test and the Desert Island Test.
Non-free.

*
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
 * EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY
 * WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 *
 * IN NO EVENT SHALL EDWARD B. HAMRICK BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
 * INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
 * RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF
 * THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF
 * OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 */

figfont.txt:
non-free license

Where's the permission to modify?

figlet.6:
This file include another copyright notice that seems to cover the whole
package, but the permission grant seems non-free...

.\"  FIGlet
\"  Copyright (C) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
\"  Internet: <info@figlet.org>
\"  Portions Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 by John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
\"  Portions Copyright 2002 by Christiaan Keet
\"  FIGlet, along with the various FIGlet fonts and documentation, may
\"  be freely copied and distributed.

It lacks permission to make modifications!
Is this an inaccurate summary of the actual license? Or is this *the*
license itself?

\"  If you use FIGlet, please send an e-mail message to
\"  <info@figlet.org>
\"

some font files (fonts/*.flf):
very limited permission grant, non-free

| Permission is hereby given to modify this font, as long as the
| modifier's name is placed on a comment line.

No permission to distribute...
And it would be non-free even with this permission, because it requires
the name of the modifier.

OK, now the copyright file states:

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This is the Debian Linux prepackaged version of Figlet, a program for doing
things
 _ _ _          _   _     _
| (_) | _____  | |_| |__ (_)___
| | | |/ / _ \ | __| '_ \| / __|
| | |   <  __/ | |_| | | | \__ \_
|_|_|_|\_\___|  \__|_| |_|_|___(_)

This package was originally put together by Robert Leslie <rob@mars.org>,
and the maintained Martin Schulze <joey@debian.org>. Now it's maintained by 
Francesco Tapparo <cesco@debian.org> with sources obtained from:
  ftp://ftp.nicoh.com/pub/figlet/program/unix/figlet22.tar.gz

figlet (c) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
  Internet: <ggc@uiuc.edu> and <chai@uiuc.edu>
  FIGlet Copyright 1996, 1997 John Cowan^M
  Portions written by Paul Burton^
  figlet, along with the various figlet fonts and documentation, may be
    freely copied and distributed.

/*
 * crc.c - CRC calculation routine
 *
 * Version 1.0
 *
 * Copyright (c) 1995, Edward B. Hamrick
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
 * its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
 * that
 *
 * (i)  the above copyright notice and the text in this "C" comment block
 *      appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and
 *
 * (ii) any modifications to this source file must be sent, via e-mail
 *      to the copyright owner (currently hamrick@primenet.com) within
 *      30 days of such modification.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
 * EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY
 * WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 *
 * IN NO EVENT SHALL EDWARD B. HAMRICK BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
 * INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
 * RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF
 * THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF
 * OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 */

In addition, the authors have approved the following copyright
addendum, according to Robert Leslie:

This program may be sold as a component of the Debian Linux
  distribution or a Linux distribution derived from the Debian
  Linux distribution. If it is distributed in binary form, the
  source code must be included in the distribution as well.

You may wish to visit the following Figlet WWW sites:

http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
  http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~chappell/figlet/

The official FIGlet web page:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/~chai/figlet.html

If you like FIGlet (hey, even if you *hate* FIGlet), please send an
e-mail message to <figlet@uiuc.edu>.

We run an e-mail list dedicated to FIGlet software and font
announcements, as well as general discussion about FIGlet.  If you
would like to be on this list, send e-mail to listserv@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
with the message body
        subscribe figlet-l YOUR NAME
where YOUR NAME should be replaced with your name.  For those who don't
want to be bothered with the discussions, the list can be configured so
that you only see software update notices, or only software and font
announcements.
- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

- -- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux neverland 2.4.27 #1 Mon Aug 9 23:52:28 CEST 2004 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=

- --
          Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
.....................................................................
    Francesco Poli                            GnuPG Key ID = DD6DFCF4
 Key fingerprint = C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12  31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4

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Revision history for this message

In Debian Bug tracker #274950, MJ Ray (mjr-dsl) wrote on 2004-10-05: Re: Bug#274950: figlet: non-free licenses and possibly non-distributable files

#3

The following email addresses were in the report. Has anyone exchanged
email with any of them about it? The last one seems to have changed to
http://www.figlet.org/mailman/listinfo/figlet but has no public
archive.

> .\" Copyright (C) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
> .\" Internet: <email address hidden>

> .\" Portions Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 by John
> Cowan
> <email address hidden>

> This package was originally put together by Robert Leslie
> <email address hidden>,
> and the maintained Martin Schulze <email address hidden>. Now it's
> maintained by
> Francesco Tapparo <email address hidden> with sources obtained from:
> ftp://ftp.nicoh.com/pub/figlet/program/unix/figlet22.tar.gz

> figlet (c) 1991, 1993, 1994 Glenn Chappell and Ian Chai
> Internet: <email address hidden> and <email address hidden>

> If you like FIGlet (hey, even if you *hate* FIGlet), please send an
> e-mail message to <email address hidden>.

> would like to be on this list, send e-mail to
> <email address hidden>
> with the message body subscribe figlet-l YOUR NAME

--
MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
Creative copyleft computing - http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
LinuxExpo.org.uk village 6+7 Oct http://www.affs.org.uk

Revision history for this message

Debian Bug Importer (debzilla) wrote on 2004-10-05:

#4

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:18:30 +0100
From: MJ Ray <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#274950: figlet: non-free licenses and possibly
non-distributable files