Re: netdate in pd?

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au> writes:

> The original sources for netdate were snarfed from the Simtel-20 archive in
> the directory PD?:<UNIX-C.NETWORKS>. They contained no mention of who the
> author might be. This version has been changed a little - mainly code
> cleanups, and one minor bug-fix.

> So does this make it PD, or not?

Not. We can only assume software is PD if we know positively that
copyright has expired (which cannot yet be the case for any computer
programs -- the author must have died before the computer was
invented) or the author has provided a binding statement that
it is PD (which formally means: that he promises not to enforce
his copyright in any circumstances ever).

> If the answer is no, do we move it to non-free or delete it altogether?

Delete it. If there is no reason to think Debian is allowed to put it
on a FTP server, Debian isn't.

-- 
Henning Makholm             "Han råber og skriger, vakler ud på kørebanen og
                          ind på fortorvet igen, hæver knytnæven mod en bil,
                     hilser overmådigt venligt på en mor med barn, bryder ud
                    i sang og stiller sig til sidst op og pisser i en port."