BOINC: lib/cal.h license issue agree with the DFSG?

Francesco Poli frx at firenze.linux.it
Sat Jan 2 21:06:25 UTC 2010


On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:01:01 -0300 Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

[...]
> Note that cal.h is a header file containing only function declarations and 
> no actual code (although I guess what counts as 'actual code' is debatable). 
> The matching function definitions are in a proprietary library that the 
> BOINC client loads at runtime with dlopen/dlsym. Dynamically linking to a 
> proprietary library like that is OK for BOINC since it is licensed under the 
> LGPL, but I don't know whether it's OK for Debian.

I am a bit puzzled now.

Package boinc seems to be in Debian (main):
http://packages.qa.debian.org/b/boinc.html

Where is this proprietary library distributed?
I do not seem to able to find it in
http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/b/boinc/boinc_6.10.17+dfsg-2/copyright
I hope that this means it is *not* included in the package.
Is it shipped in one of boinc dependencies/recommendations/suggestions?


BTW, there are some files listed in the above cited copyright file,
released under a license that seems to be really troublesome:

The files are

api/texfont.[cpp|h], samples/glut/glutbitmap.h
samples/glut/glut.h
samples/glut/win32_util.[ch] samples/glut/win32_x11.[ch]

The license is

| License: other
|  This program is freely distributable without licensing fees and is
|  provided without guarantee or warrantee expressed or implied.
|  This program is -not- in the public domain.

I cannot see any permission to modify or distribute modified versions:
these files do *not* seem to comply with DFSG#3.


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