On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:54:41 +0200 David Bateman wrote: > Francesco Poli wrote: [...] > That is effectively correct though there is an intermediate step and a > couple of octave-forge specific build tools. The complete set of steps > together with the build tools are > > comms.txi > fixed.txi -------------------> \ > > | comms.texi comms.pdf > *.m |----> fixed.texi ---> fixed.pdf > *.cc --------> DOCSTRINGS ----> / > > /\ /\ /\ > > || || || > > mkdoc mktexi texi2pdf > > > where mkdoc and mktexi are perl scripts that are part of octave-forge > itself. Where are these two Perl scripts? I cannot find them in the octave-forge package included in Debian: http://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/octave2.1-forge/filelist Are they included in more recent versions of octave-forge? The version currently in Debian (unstable branch) is 2006.03.17+dfsg1: http://packages.debian.org/sid/octave2.1-forge > All of the *.m and *.cc files are GPL v2 or later licensed. As > are mkdoc and mktexi themselves as they are derived form another script > make_index that is GPL v2 or later. The *.txi files are under the > license previously discussed. > > The Motorola release request process I went through made no specific > claim on what the documentation license of the code would, just that > documentation would be released together with GPL v2 or later code. > Therefore under the terms of that release there is nothing to stop a > change in the documentation license of fixed.txi, as it was I as an > employee of Motorola who wrote this code and got the permission for the > release. Good. [...] > Then the simplest solution is to make comms.txi and fixed.txi have a GPL > compatible license and be done with. Yes, and include comms.txi and fixed.txi in the Debian source package. Moreover the Perl scripts (mkdoc and mktexi) must be included in the source package, or otherwise shipped with some other package (which will be a Build-Dependency). [...] > > My usual recommendations are: > > > > * the GNU GPL itself, if you want a copyleft > > > That is a bit of an ugly solution but at least ensures compatible licenses.. I would really recommend the same exact license as the .cc files from which DOCSTRINGS are extracted, that is to say, GNU GPL v2 or later. And I don't see any ugliness in this solution. I personally see the GNU GPL v2 as the best (copyleft) license out there, for any kind of work (programs, documentation, images, and so forth...). > > > * the Expat license[1], if you don't want a copyleft on the text (but > > please note that the resulting PDF file would anyway be covered by the > > GNU GPL, because of the parts extracted from GPL'd .cc files) > > > > [1] http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt > > > Huh? I'm not sure a see a significant difference in the above license to > the one the *.txi already have.. The above license doesn't require > distribution of the source code with the generated PDF file, which was > the original issue in this thread.. Source distribution is mandated (for the Debian Project) by the DFSG anyway... > About the only difference I see with > this license is that it is explicitly mentioned that you can sell copies > of the manual.. There is at least one huge difference: | Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this | manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the *entire* | resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission | notice *identical* to this one. [emphasis added by me] This is a (weak) copyleft clause that makes the license GPL-incompatible, since both licenses (the current license of fixed.txi and the GNU GPL v2) mandate that the *entire* derived work is under their respective terms, and you cannot comply with both conditions at the same time for the *entire* derived work, because the GPL forbids adding further restrictions, but the other license has restrictions not included in the GPL! The Expat license, on the other hand, has no copyleft clauses and includes no restrictions which are not present in the GNU GPL v2 too. Hence, the Expat license is GPL-compatible. Hope this explains. My standardized disclaimers: IANAL, TINLA, IANADD, TINASOTODP. -- http://frx.netsons.org/doc/index.html#nanodocs The nano-document series is here! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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