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authorMike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>2016-07-05 10:41:24 +0200
committerMike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>2016-07-05 10:41:24 +0200
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-On DXPC retroactive relicensing as BSD-2-clause
-===============================================
-
-TL;DR; In May 2015, all versions of DXPC released before version 3.8.1 (sometime
-in 2002) have retroactively been re-licensed by all previous maintainers
-of DXPC as BSD-2-clause.
-
-This README file gives an overview of the discussion thread that lead to
-the retroactive re-licensing of DXPC.
-
-For the full discussion, see doc/DXPC_re-licensed_debug_784565.mbox in
-this source project or #784565 on the Debian bug tracker [1].
-
-light+love,
-20150521, Mike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>
-
-[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=784565
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-STEP 1
-======
-
-In May 2015, a serious license issue around the nxcomp code shipped in
-this source project was raised and solved on the Debian bug tracker (thanks to
-Francesco Poli and many others): http://bugs.debian.org/784565
-
-"""
-From: "Francesco Poli \(wintermute\)" <invernomuto@paranoici.org>
-To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
-Date: Wed, 06 May 2015 19:35:32 +0200
-
-I noticed that the debian/copyright states:
-
-[...]
-| Parts of this software are derived from DXPC project. These copyright
-| notices apply to original DXPC code:
-|
-| Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided
-| that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all
-| such forms.
-|
-| THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
-| WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
-| MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
-|
-| Copyright (c) 1995,1996 Brian Pane
-| Copyright (c) 1996,1997 Zachary Vonler and Brian Pane
-| Copyright (c) 1999 Kevin Vigor and Brian Pane
-| Copyright (c) 2000,2001 Gian Filippo Pinzari and Brian Pane
-[...]
-
-This license lacks the permission to modify the DXPC code.
-Hence, the original DXPC code does not appear to comply with the
-DFSG. And the nx-libs-lite is in part derived from DXPC code.
-
-This basically means that nx-libs-lite includes parts which are
-non-free (as they are derived from non-modifiable code) and
-are also possibly legally undistributable (as they are non-modifiable,
-but actually modified). The combination with the rest of nx-libs-lite
-(which is GPL-licensed) may also be legally undistributable (since
-the license with no permission to modify is GPL-incompatible).
-
-
-If there's anything I misunderstood, please clarify.
-
-Otherwise, please address this issue as soon as possible.
-The copyright owners for the original DXPC code should be
-contacted and persuaded to re-license under GPL-compatible
-terms.
-"""
-
-The issue has been settled by asking all recent maintainers (i.e.,
-copyright holders) of DXPC, to agree on considering the BSD-2-clause
-license (as introduced in DXPC 3.8.1) retro-actively as the license of
-all pre-3.8.1 DXPC releases.
-
-STEP 2:
-=======
-
-Kevin Vigor, the (at that time being) latest known maintainer of DXPC
-replied back immediately and provided the info given below. He also
-stated that he agrees to applying BSD-2-clause retroactively to all
-pre-3.8.1 releases of DXPC.
-
-"""
-From: Kevin Vigor <kevin@vigor.nu>
-To: Mike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>
-CC: 784565@bugs.debian.org, [...]
-Subject: Re: Bug#784565: nx-libs-lite: parts are derived from non-free code
-
-Hi Mike, et al,
-
- I am not the original author of dxpc, that being Brian Pane. However,
- I took over maintenance circa 1999 and am still the primary maintainer
- (though the project has effectively been dead for most of a decade
- now).
-
- As you are aware, when I inherited the code, it was licensed under a
- variant of the BSD license that did not include the 'with
- modification' clause. To the best of my recollection, somebody from
- the FSF contacted me circa 2001 regarding this and as a result,
- subsequent releases were done under a standard 2-clause BSD license
- with the modification clause. Again, to the best of my recollection, I
- contacted Brian about this change and he offered no objection.
-
- Further, I recall distinctly that NoMachine contacted me and
- explicitly asked permission before including DXPC code in NX, which I
- happily granted with no new conditions beyond the BSD license already
- in play.
-
- It is possible, though by no means certain, that I could dig up
- ancient email to corroborate this account if necessary. However, I am
- more than willing to publicly state that I believe NoMachine's use of
- DXPC code to be both legal and ethical, and that my intent when
- changing the license to 2-clause BSD was simply to clarity the
- existing intent and that it ought therefore be considered retroactive.
-
- Yours,
- Kevin Vigor
-
-[...]
-"""
-
-STEP 3:
--------
-
-We were not able to dig out any recent mail address of Zachary Volner,
-another of the DXPC copyright holders, but a phone number.
-
-On Friday, May 15th, I (Mike Gabriel) called that phone number and left a
-message on - hopefully - Zach's voicebox, asking him to mail me, so I
-could explain everything. He mailed back and later on posted the below
-statement to the Debian BTS, also expressing his agreement to the
-retroactive re-licensing of DXPC.
-
-"""
-Date: Mon, 18 May 2015 10:05:38 -0500
-Subject: Re: Bug#784565: nx-libs-lite: parts are derived from non-free code
-From: Zach Vonler <zvonler@gmail.com>
-To: 784565@bugs.debian.org
-
-On Thu, 14 May 2015 05:55:42 +0000 Mike Gabriel <
-mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de> wrote:
-
->
-> TL;DR; So here comes my actual question: are you (Brian Pane, Zachary
-> Vonler, Gian Filippo Pinzari) ok with retroactively regarding
-> pre-3.8.1 code of DXPC (that you probably all worked on at that time)
-> as BSD-2-clause? Are you ok with others having taken or taking the
-> pre-3.8.1 DXPC code and distribute it in a modified form?
->
-
-
-> A yes from all of you as DXPC copyright holders is essential for the
-> continuation of nx-libs development under a free license. This may
-> also possibly be an issue for NXv4 in case parts of it have been
-> derived from DXPC.
-
-
-Yes, I am fine with considering the license change to be retroactive to
-cover the time I was the maintainer.
-
-I have no objections to others distributing modified versions of that code.
-
-Zach
-"""
-
-STEP 4:
--------
-
-By 18th May 2015, Brian Pane had not mailed back to us. Hoping he is well
-and alive. Giving my personal gratitude to him for his work on DXPC back
-in the nighties.
-
-However, Kevin found an old archive of the DXPC mailing lists, esp. a
-post by Brian expressing openness to modifications of all DXPC code
-versions.
-
-We refer to this regarding his consent on the re-licensing.
-
-"""
-Date: Mon, 18 May 2015 15:11:42 -0600
-From: Kevin Vigor <kevin@vigor.nu>
-To: Mike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>, 784565@bugs.debian.org, Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>
-CC: [...]
-Subject: Re: Bug#784565: nx-libs-lite: parts are derived from non-free code
-
-By the way, poking around the interwebs I find there is an archive of the old DXPC mailing list available at:
-
-http://marc.info/?l=dxpc&r=1&w=2
-
-I think you will find this of particular interest:
-
-
-http://marc.info/?l=dxpc&m=93093790813555&w=2
-
-
-List: dxpc
-Subject: Re: future tecnologies
-From: Brian Pane <brianp () cnet ! com>
-Date: 1999-07-02 16:42:18
-[Download message RAW]
-
-Kevin Vigor <kvigor@eng.ascend.com> wrote:
-> On 01-Jul-99 dxpc@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu wrote:
-> > Speaking of licensing, are you putting your 3.8.0 changes to the dxpc
-> > code itself under GPL, or are they going to use the original dxpc's
-> > licensing?
->
-> No, as you can probably guess, I am no fan of the GPL. For stuff on
-> this level, where my hacking is pretty simple and probably devoid of
-> commercial value, I'll just release my changes to the public domain and
-> give up even a copyright interest in them.
->
-> Your and Zach's copyrights still stand, of course.
->
-> I *think* that fact that we use the LZO library and API, but do not
-> directly incorporate the code, allows us to escape the clutch of the GPL
-> virus.
->
-> btw, is there an original dxpc license? I haven't seen anything but a
-> copyright notice, which to my non-lawyerly mind translates as "free to
-> all the world as is, negotiate with copyright owner if modifying or
-> including in some other product".
-
-The copyright banner in the Readme is all the documentation there's ever
-been. My intent was to allow _any_ distribution, use, and modification
-of the source, without imposing restrictions on the licensing style of
-any system into which others might incorporate the code. We probably
-should start stating this clearly in the distributions.
-
--brian
-
-[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]
-"""
-
-STEP 5:
--------
-
-Last but not least, Kevin informed us that Gian Filippo Pinzari never
-contributed any code to any of the official DPXC releases. So we assumed
-that his copyrights on the code stem from the time where he - under the
-NoMachine umbrella - worked on the code and should probably be associated
-with the GPL-2 re-licensing of the code later on done by NoMachine
-(which we did in the LICENSE file).
-
-It also appears, that there has been an incongruity between the copyright
-statement in nxcomp/Misc.cpp and nxcomp/LICENSE for Gian Filippo Pinzari.
-We used the copyright years (2000,2003) from nxcomp/Misc.cpp instead of
-those originally given in nxcomp/LICENSE (2000,2006).
-
-"""
-Date: Mon, 18 May 2015 19:16:25 -0600
-From: Kevin Vigor <kevin@vigor.nu>
-To: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>,
- Mike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de>
-CC: 784565@bugs.debian.org, [...]
-Subject: Re: [pkg-x2go-devel] Bug#784565: Bug#784565: nx-libs-lite: parts are derived from non-free code
-
-On 5/18/2015 4:14 PM, Francesco Poli wrote:
-> If it is confirmed that Gian Filippo contributed to the forking of
-> DXPC within the NoMachine project, but not directly to DXPC, then I
-> think that he made his contributions available under the terms of the
-> GPL v2 of the NoMachine project. If this is the case, no feedback
-> should be required from his side.
-I can confirm that Gian Fillippo never contributed directly to DXPC.
-You'll note his name does not appear in the DXPC README, and never has.
-"""