Bug#449475: vegastrike: src/cmd/collide/prapid.* cannot be distributed

[Andres Mejia]

I've sent a message upstream about this and received a reply. I'll let
their reply do the talking.

Link to the thread is at
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10013

"I was under the impression Crystal Space is GPL code. That remark you
quoted says nothing about the license. It specifically says "based on
an implementation originally Copyright ..."

Unless this method of collision was patented, I believe it should be fine.

However we are using a significantly older version, and it's possible
that the code we included with Vega Strike was on legally shady ground
at the time.

Let's see what the Debian Legal team says about this issue.

In the meantime, I would be interested in this older version from 1995
(If the legal bug submitter had actually posted a link to the original
source code). It's possible he used that as a reference
implementation, but wrote the GPL code himself.

This Debian report really ought to have been directed to Crystal
Space, but it's true that we include a specific revision of their
collision engine that might specifically be at fault."