Bug#361846: [Pkg-openldap-devel] Bug#361846: non-free license for core.schema

[Steve Langasek]

severity 361846 serious
tags 361846 etch-ignore
thanks

On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 10:51:52AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Steve Langasek <vorlon at debian.org> writes:

> >> Plus, this is an interface specification if I've ever seen one, and
> >> interface specifications are not copyrightable under US law.

> > I agree, but was hesitant to assert this without some corroboration.

> > If this file is a non-copyrightable interface definition, the bug here is
> > the presence of a copyright notice and license statement where there should
> > be none.

> After further discussion with upstream, apparently in some of the schema
> files they are including substantial portions of the RFCs as comments,
> enough so that their legal counsel felt they needed to include the
> relevant portions of the license.

> I believe the correct path for Debian going forward would then be to strip
> all the RFC-originated comments from all of the schema files (including in
> the source tarball), add a comment pointing people to the relevant RFC,
> and then remove the IESG license as well.

> For core.schema, there's only one comment that probably isn't long enough
> to be anything other than fair use, but some of the other schemas contain
> much more substantial comments.

Ok, I hadn't looked at any of the schema files besides core.schema and don't
have the sources at hand right now, so taking your word for the details, I
agree (again :) regarding the proper course of action.

I guess that makes the bug serious again since these comments are non-free;
but I'm also going to take the liberty of marking it etch-ignore, since a
handful of comments are probably not a good reason to hold up the release if
we don't get to this bug on time.

Cheers,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon at debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/