[Bug 672491] New: vcdimager is undistributable
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=672491 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=672491#c0 Summary: vcdimager is undistributable Classification: openSUSE Product: openSUSE 11.4 Version: Factory Platform: Other OS/Version: SuSE Other Status: NEW Severity: Normal Priority: P5 - None Component: Other AssignedTo: bnc-team-screening@forge.provo.novell.com ReportedBy: joerg.schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de QAContact: qa@suse.de Found By: --- Blocker: --- User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS i86pc; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090617 Firefox/3.5 A base component of vcdimager is the Reed Solomon coder. The coder implementation used by vcdimager has been written by Heiko Eißfeldt and was not published under GPL. vcdimager claims that the Reed Solomon coder is under GPL but did never get permission from the Copyright holder to change the license. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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Marcus Meissner
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--- Comment #1 from Ciaran Farrell
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Ciaran Farrell
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--- Comment #2 from Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #3 from Jörg Schiling
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Marcus Meissner
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--- Comment #5 from Jörg Schiling
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Ciaran Farrell
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--- Comment #7 from Jörg Schiling
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Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #8 from Ciaran Farrell
From your comments in Comment#7 I was able to discern the following information which may be relevant in the context of this specific bug:
"the first implementation written by Heiko Eißfeldt in 1999 was never put under GPL." "Heiko did permit vcdimager to use his code, but he did not permit to put it under GPL." "vcdimager still uses the old implementation (with different indentation) and definitely is illegal."
From Comment#1 I discerned the following:
"The primary author of vcdimager (Herbert Valerio Riedel) was very collaborative with respect to anything until we informed him about the fact that Heiko does not like to have the code under GPL. Riedel replied to this mail, so it is obvious that he is informed but he did completely stop replying after we send him a proposal on how to solve the license problem." So _Eissfeldt_, as _sole_ copyright holder to "the old implementation" expressly requested Riedel to refrain from exercising any of the rights of which Eissfeldt was exclusive (and sole) owner by virtue of copyright law and the subsequent developments indicate that Riedel refused _Eissfeldt's_ request? Or did Eissfeldt request that they distribute his work under other terms only? These are quite serious statements - I can see that under the circumstances as you described them, as sole copyright holder, Eissfeldt could issue such a request. I would greatly appreciate if you could point me to Eissfeldt's request. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #9 from Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #10 from Ciaran Farrell
While sending mail to Mr. Riedel, I acted as a representative for Heiko and the related decision was made on the phone, so I cannot send you a related mail from Heiko.
From Comment#9, I understand that Eissfeldt authorised you to make such written requests "on the phone". Due to the nature of the communication (telephone) there is no written record of the authorisation.
My current understanding based solely on your communication of the issues is that there may be an issue with the reed solomon encoder in vcdimager but without express corroboration from the actual copyright holder of the code at issue (i.e. as to the license of the reed solomon encoder as part of vcdimager and as to your acting as his agent in the aforementioned communications), I cannot make recommendations. Perhaps Heiko Eissfeldt would like to call me to discuss this further? -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #11 from Jörg Schiling
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Ciaran Farrell
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--- Comment #13 from Jörg Schiling
From my discussions with him, it is obvious that he recommends to use the CDDL version as this is the maintained version. He would be OK with the GPL version, but the code used in vcdimager is not "the GPL version" and thus not under GPL.
The code used in vcdimager is not OSS. As a result, the FSF is in conflict with the Copyright law. I see two possible ways of solving the conflict: - make sure that vcdimager is GPLv2 _only_ and _include_ the outdated and unmaintained GPLv2 version of the libedc code _into_ the vcdimager "work". - make sure that the libedc code is a separate project and declare vcdimager to be a collective work of the following independent works: vcdimager (being under GPLv2) without libedc and libedc being a separate work under CDDL. For the combination of GPLv2 and any arbitrary other license, there are useful legal GPL reviews. As the vcdimager project is still under GPLv2, I see no problem with this solution. Given the fact the CDDL is a permissive reciprocal license, the CDDL does not cause any problem and the GPL obviously permits collective works. See e.g. Lawrence Rosen, Thomas Gordon and Lothar Determann. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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Ciaran Farrell
From my discussions with him, it is obvious that he recommends to use the CDDL version as this is the maintained version."
This is my impression as well. I don't think he (Heiko Eissfeldt) will mind me quoting this: "The GPLv2 version can be used in vcdimager, but I would prefer the latest version, since it is more stable/current. Developers always want their newest versions to be used". Both you and Heiko mentioned that the outdated GPL version of the reed solomon encoder was always "GPLv2 only" (i.e. without an "or later"). In sector.c and sector_private.h I see a GPLv2 "or later" notice. Was this not pointed out to vcdimager upstream (who I see as the real place to fix this bug)? @Stano, could you please check what the differences are between the Eissfeldt owned code in vcdimager/lib/sector.c (and sector_private.h) and the GPLv2 version of Eissfeldt's code. I have received feedback from the copyright holder that the only GPL version that the reed solomon encoder was licensed under was GPLv2 (i.e. without "or later"). -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #15 from Juergen Weigert
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--- Comment #16 from Jörg Schiling
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Jörg Schiling
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Juergen Weigert
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Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #19 from Ciaran Farrell
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Juergen Weigert
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--- Comment #21 from Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #22 from Ciaran Farrell
Heiko and I are interested in the best solution
I'm sure you are. I confirmed by email that Heiko would like to see the latest version of his code used, not because of the license but because it is technically superior to older versions.
I hope you are open to the best solution for this legal problem.
If there is a problem we will adopt the solution that makes most sense for us. I don't see how we would be ignoring a 'legal problem' given that our current preferred path is to examine the feasibility of a suggestion you yourself made in comment#13. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #23 from Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #24 from Ciaran Farrell
so we can asume that you will use the current version of the library that is under CDDL?
I don't know who you mean by "we". Nowhere in my comments did I mention CDDL either. I said that _if_ there is a problem - which I also did not ever actually state but rather asked the package maintainer for opinion - then we will adopt the solution that makes most sense for us. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #25 from Jörg Schiling
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Stanislav Brabec
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--- Comment #27 from Jörg Schiling
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Ciaran Farrell
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--- Comment #29 from Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #30 from Ciaran Farrell
The only reaction I could see, was public offenses against me in various newsgroups and mailing lists. It unfortunately seems to be very unlikely that he is interested in a legal solution.
Strange. I received a polite and helpful response from Rocky just a couple of hours after my initial email to him. He has added your copyright to the file and has removed the "or later". His changes were checked into the upstream SVN. You can see them online here: http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/vcdimager/lib/sector.c?root=vcdimager&view=markup -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #31 from Ciaran Farrell
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Stanislav Brabec
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Juergen Weigert
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--- Comment #34 from Jörg Schiling
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Juergen Weigert
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Jörg Schiling
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--- Comment #37 from Juergen Weigert
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Juergen Weigert
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--- Comment #39 from Bernhard Wiedemann
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