[sword-devel] modules for debian

[Ben Armstrong]

On Tue, Jan 30, 2001 at 06:21:53PM -0700, Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
> Regarding the KJV and Larry Pierce.
> 
> We obtained permission to use Larry's text with strongs numbers as a
> base for a freely available SWORD module.
> 
> I wouldn't have thought that we had a copyright issue.  NONE of our
> TEXTS are GPL (not sure if that would make sense for anything other than
> a 'living document'), many are PD.

The issue is "freely redistributable".  If Debian needs to
be granted special permission to redistribute the data, then it
cannot be included.

Please see http://www.debian.org/social_contract
thorough account of which freedoms a package's license needs to
provide in order to be included in Debian.  In particular, any
license requiring special permission to redistribute would fail:

    8. License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
       The rights attached to the program must not depend on the
       program's being part of a Debian system. If the program is
       extracted from Debian and used or distributed without Debian but
       otherwise within the terms of the program's license, all parties
       to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights
       as those that are granted in conjunction with the Debian system.

It all depends on the nature of your agreement with Larry.  If this
kind of free redistribution is what he intended, then it should be
explicitly stated in the license for the package that the author has
granted this freedom, otherwise Debian is unable to include his work. 

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
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