[Pkg-pascal-devel] Interface files licensing

[Abou Al Montacir]

Dear All,

I'm member of Debian Pascal packaging team. We are packaging Lazarus, a
multi-platform RAD tool for the Free Pascal Compiler.

During recent review of the source files, we discovered that one file
[1] seems to have a problematic licensing.

This file is licensed under the APSL V2 [2] which looks incompatible
with DFSG.

However, this file is a pure interface file, only defining data types
and MACOS file format. There is absolutely no instruction code. It is
exactly equivalent to a C header file for any library that does not
include any function definition.

My own understanding is that this kind of interfacing files are not
covered by intellectual property as long as the interface itself is
publicly available.

Can you please confirm this understanding or advice how one can deal
with such kind of licensing issue?

Thanks in advance for your valuable help.

PS: Please keep Debian Pascal Devel Team list in CC.

[1] http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-pascal/lazarus.git/tree/components/fpdebug/macho.pas
[2] http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/
-- 
Cheers,
Abou Al Montacir