[Pkg-octave-devel] PS documentation file, no sources, author died

[Rafael Laboissiere]

I have filed an ITP for octave-quartenion [1], a package from the
Octave-Forge Project [2].  Its latest released tarball [3] contains a
documentation file doc/quartenion [4] in PostScript format for which no
source is available.  There is also no Copyright notice in the file
itself, and there are no licensing conditions neither, although the
DESCRIPTION file [5] claims that the whole package is distributed under
the GNU GPL v3+.  I think this violates the DFSG.

I would really like to distribute the documentation file but the upstream
author died recently [6] and the chances are small that the sources can
be found.  Is there any rule that applies to this case, I mean, when an
author dies?

A simple solution would be to strip the PS file from the tarball and,
eventually, create an octave-quartenion-nonfree package containing it.
Otherwise, we could generate a LaTeX file that reproduces that PS file.
If we do that, what should be the Copyright notice and the licence
statement?

[1] http://bugs.debian.org/529732
[2] http://octave.sf.net
[3] http://downloads.sourceforge.net/octave/quaternion-1.0.0.tar.gz?download
[4] http://octave.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/octave/trunk/octave-forge/main/quaternion/doc/quaternion.ps?view=log
[5] http://octave.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/octave/trunk/octave-forge/main/quaternion/DESCRIPTION?revision=5326&view=markup
[6] http://eng.auburn.edu/programs/ece/staff/hodel-memorial.html

-- 
Rafael