[Debburn-devel] License of cdrkit - GPLv2 + additional restrictions

[Markus Laire]

I'm concerned about the licensing of cdrkit[1,2] aka debburn, which
was recently forked from cdrecord.

The current license seems to be GPLv2 + additional restrictions which
IMHO is not right because GPLv2 doesn't allow any such additional
restrictions.

An example from libscg/scsi-linux-ata.c[3]:

<skip>
 *	Warning: you may change this source, but if you do that
 *	you need to change the _scg_version and _scg_auth* string below.
 *	You may not return "schily" for an SCG_AUTHOR request anymore.
 *	Choose your name instead of "schily" and make clear that the version
 *	string is related to a modified source.
<skip>
/*
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
 * this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 */
<skip>
                /*
                 * If you changed this source, you are not allowed to
                 * return "schily" for the SCG_AUTHOR request.
                 */
                case SCG_AUTHOR:
                        return (_scg_auth_cdrkit);
                case SCG_SCCS_ID:
                        return (ata_sccsid);
<skip>


An another example from cdrecord/cdrecord.c[4]:

    /*
     * Warning: you are not allowed to modify or to remove this
     * version checking code!
     */
    vers = scg_version(0, SCG_VERSION);
    auth = scg_version(0, SCG_AUTHOR);
    <SKIP over 20 lines of that code>


I mentioned this problem over a week ago[5] at debburn-devel but
didn't get any response.

Recently Nathanael Nerode mentioned this problem again[6] and Albert
Cahalan answered[7]:
> On 9/12/06, Nathanael Nerode <neroden at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> > (1) Merge changes made in dvdrtools.  dvdrtools forked from an even
> > earlier version of cdrtools, and all the additions are GPLv2-or-later.
> >
> > (dvdrtools is in non-free solely because of the libscg "You may not" lines, which
> > are *also* present in cdrkit.  Um.... there's some small problem there.)
>
> We need to make a choice right now:
>
> a. delete those lines (Joerg#1 said the code was GPL anyway)
> b. go back to a much older version

Unfortunately Eduard Bloch (one of the people behind this fork)
doesn't see any problem here[8]:
> > (dvdrtools is in non-free solely because of the libscg "You may not" lines, which
> > are *also* present in cdrkit.  Um.... there's some small problem there.)
>
> If you see a concrete problem, point it out. Or stop talking like there
> were a problem.

In my opinion there is clearly a concrete problem as there are
restrictions in the source-code which are not allowed by GPLv2.


So I'd now like to ask what debian-legal thinks about this situation,
and whether the license of cdrkit is OK for Debian-main.


[1] http://debburn.alioth.debian.org/
[2] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn
[3] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn/nonameyet/trunk/libscg/scsi-linux-ata.c?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[4] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debburn/nonameyet/trunk/cdrecord/cdrecord.c?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[5] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000005.html
[6] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000048.html
[7] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000050.html
[8] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debburn-devel/2006-September/000051.html

-- 
Markus Laire