From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from euclid.skiles.gatech.edu (list@euclid.skiles.gatech.edu [130.207.146.50]) by coral.primenet.com.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA07660 for ; Sun, 1 Sep 1996 10:26:19 +1000 (EST) Received: (from list@localhost) by euclid.skiles.gatech.edu (8.7.3/8.7.3) id UAA24924; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 20:21:10 -0400 (EDT) Resent-Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 20:21:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Zoltan Hidvegi Message-Id: <199609010019.CAA08255@hzoli.ppp.cs.elte.hu> Subject: Zsh distribution terms To: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu (Zsh hacking and development) Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 02:19:44 +0200 (MET DST) Cc: pf@software.com X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL17 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Resent-Message-ID: <"LNBsW2.0.J56.rRDAo"@euclid> Resent-From: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/2098 X-Loop: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu Precedence: list Resent-Sender: zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu I had a correspondence with Richard Stallman about the zsh distribution terms. I would like to change the copyright notices in the C files to something similar to the one he suggests below. The difference will be the copyright terms of the manual. I'd like to place the manual under the following copyright: Copyright (C) 1992-1996 Paul Falstad All rights reserved. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions. These changes will make us easier to borrow code and documentation from FSF sources. After that we can freely use parts of FSF manuals in the zsh manual. To use FSF code we still have to ask for permission from the FSF but it's more likely that we'll get it than without this change. I think that this change just makes the copyright terms more clear. I always interpreted the copyright in that way. Of course we need Paul Falstad's approval for this change. Zoltan ----- Forwarded message from Richard Stallman ----- >>From hzoli@cs.elte.hu Sat Aug 31 00:47:18 1996 Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 13:17:33 -0400 Message-Id: <199608301717.NAA04336@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu> From: Richard Stallman To: hzoli@cs.elte.hu cc: rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu In-reply-to: <199608301540.RAA01642@bolyai.cs.elte.hu> (message from Zoltan Hidvegi on Fri, 30 Aug 1996 17:40:29 +0200 (MET DST)) Subject: Re: zsh distribution terms Sender: hzoli@cs.elte.hu Where did you read that? In the zsh-2.5 distribution? I asked Badros to send me "the distribution terms of zsh"; I am not sure which version he got them from. * Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without * license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this * software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the * above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in * all copies of this software. This paragraph is the one that has the problem. The problem is that it doesn't clearly say that people can distribute modified versions. One can interpret it as giving permission for that. It is a plausible interpretation--but not absolutely certain. I've encountered copyright holders who used such wording--and then turned around, after the fact, to say, "Yes we gave permission to distribute, and to modify, but we deny this means permission to distribute a modified version. You can distribute our version, and you can modify it privately, but you may not distribute a modified version." Perhaps a judge would agree with our interpretation that this wording implies permission to distribute a modified version. But it is better for the community if users can be completely sure what their rights are. I think you want to give permission to distribute modified versions. So would you please add an explicit statement saying so? For example, you could use this: * Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and * without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and * distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, * and to distribute modified versions of them, provided that the * above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear * in all copies of this software. I see one other potential source of uncertainty. It is not evident just which texts "its documentation" refers to. It cannot refer to "anything that describes zsh" because anybody can write about zsh. It must refer to a specific set of documentation files. But it doesn't show what that set consists of. I would suggest that the distribution terms for the software talk only about the software; state the distribution permission for documentation files in those files. That way, people will know precisely which works are covered by which terms. ----- End of forwarded message from Richard Stallman -----