Hello Golda, I maintain the Debian package of glimpse, and I've patched a few minor bugs. Another Debian developer has raised the issue though that the glimpse license doesn't explicitly allow distributing modified versions of the software. May Debian redistribute binaries of glimpse built from modified source code?
The Debian Free Software Guidelines state that "The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code." It seems to me this must apply to software in the non-free archive as well. The modifications are minor bug fixes and can be seen here: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/g/glimpse/glimpse_4.18.0-3.diff.gz On a seperate note, have you considered licensing glimpse under an Open Source Initiative license, such as the GPL? Thanks, Shaun On 5/11/05, Göran Weinholt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Package: glimpse > Version: 4.18.0-4 > Severity: serious > > This is the license of glimpse and as you can see it does not allow > any modifications: > > --- > Copyright 1997, Arizona Board of Regents. > > Glimpse was developed by Udi Manber, Sun Wu, and Burra Gopal > at the University of Arizona, Department of Computer Science. > It is currently maintained and licensed by Internet Workshop. > Permission is granted to copy this software, to redistribute it > on a nonprofit basis, and to use it for any purpose, subject to > the following restrictions and understandings. > > 1. Any copy made of this software must include this copyright notice > in full. > > 2. All materials developed as a consequence of the use of this > software shall duly acknowledge such use, in accordance with the usual > standards of acknowledging credit in academic research. > In particular, if you use glimpse in any way on any WWW site, > you should include a link to Glimpse home page at > http://webglimpse.org > > 3. The authors have made no warranty or representation that the > operation of this software will be error-free or suitable for any > application, and they are under under no obligation to provide any > services, by way of maintenance, update, or otherwise. The software > is an experimental prototype offered on an as-is basis. > > 4. Any commercial use of this software will require a license. > Contact Internet Workshop > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > WWW: http://webglimpse.net/licensing.html > Fax: (520) 620-6841 > Phone: (520) 620-6878 > --- > > Yet you modify these source code files under the above license in > glimpse_4.18.0-4.diff.gz: > > glimpse-4.18.0/split.c > glimpse-4.18.0/index/glimpse.c > > The same license presumably applies to the manpages and the Makefile > you've trivially modified. Unless you have obtained permission to > modify the above files it seems Debian is in violation of the license. > > Regards, > > -- > Göran Weinholt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Debian developer, sysadmin, netadmin