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Concerns over Modula-3 copyrights.



As you may or may not be aware, I'm busily packaging up Modula-3 for
Debian. This took a hit last year, when libc6 was released; the
stock Modula-3 distribution doesn't have any support for libc6. The
result is that I'm packaging up a modified variant, Polytechnique
Modula-3 (aka PM3.) The problem is that I've had a look at a fair
bit of the source code (grep and find are your friends :-) and the
copyrights I've found to date are summed up:


---------- excerpt from draft Copyright file --------
Except where otherwise specified, the Modula-3 source code comes under
Digital's License Agreement, reproduced (in its entirety) at the end of
this file. [The DLA has been omitted from the mail message.]

Bitmaps used as card images are subject to a different copyright:
/*
 * Copyright 1990 David Lemke and Network Computing Devices
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
 * documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
 * the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
 * copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
 * documentation, and that the name of Network Computing Devices not be 
 * used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the 
 * software without specific, written prior permission.  Network Computing 
 * Devices makes no representations about the suitability of this software 
 * for any purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied 
 * warranty.
 *
 * NETWORK COMPUTING DEVICES DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS 
 * SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS,
 * IN NO EVENT SHALL NETWORK COMPUTING DEVICES BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL,
 * INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM 
 * LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE 
 * OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE 
 * OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 *
 * Author:      
 *              Dave Lemke
 *              lemke@ncd.com
 *
 *              Network Computing Devices, Inc
 *              350 North Bernardo Ave
 *              Mountain View, CA 94043
 *
 *      @(#)copyright.h 2.2     90/04/27
 *
 */

% Copyright (c) 1989, Donald R. Woods and Sun Microsystems, Inc.
%
% Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
% documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
% the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright
% notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and
% that the names of Donald Woods and Sun Microsystems not be used in
% advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without
% specific, written prior permission.  Donald Woods and Sun Microsystems make
% no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose.
% It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
%
% THE ABOVE-NAMED DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
% INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS.  IN NO EVENT
% SHALL DONALD WOODS OR SUN MICROSYSTEMS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR
% CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE,
% DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
% TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE
% OF THIS SOFTWARE.
%

The solver is Copyright (C) 1992, Xerox Corporation.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is, literally, the whole copyright statement (as far as I can tell)
for this particular file.

libs/m3core/src/win32/WinVer.i3 is also worrying:

(* Copyright (C) 1994, Digital Equipment Corporation         *)
(* All rights reserved.                                      *)
(* See the file COPYRIGHT for a full description.            *)
(*                                                           *)
(* by Stephen Harrison                                       *)
(*                                                           *)
(* Last modified on Wed Dec 21 09:18:40 PST 1994 by kalsow   *)
(*      modified on Tue Mar 23 18:10:43 PST 1993 by harrison *)

INTERFACE WinVer;

(*****************************************************************************\
*                                                                             *
* winver.h -    Version management functions, types, and definitions          *
*                                                                             *
*               Include file for VER.DLL.  This library is                    *
*               designed to allow version stamping of Windows executable      *
*               files                                                         *
*               and of special .VER files for DOS executable files.           *
*                                                                             *
*               Copyright (c) 1992, Microsoft Corp.  All rights reserved      *
*                                                                             *
\*****************************************************************************)

The last two are the statements that worry me. Digital's License Agreement
appears to be free, and the implication (if you don't look too deep)
is that all the source code is covered by that license. I'm not particularly
happy about this, as there appears to be a rather severe conflict in some
cases between the immediately obvious copyright, and the copyrights embedded
in some of the files.

Does anybody have any suggestions regarding this matter? There is no
great rush as far as Debian is concerned -- full-time work is leaving
me with very little time to play around with Modula-3, unfortunately.

Cheers.


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