Re: [cc65] Debian zealots and other off-topic stuff

On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 01:33:36PM +0200, Andre Majorel wrote:
> In my opinion, every source file should list at the top all its
> authors, with the copyright dates and licences (if any).
[...]
> Not doing this is possibly legal, but it invites confusion.

That depends on your expectations. People from the US tend to search for a
copyright notice in the sources, because the old US copyright law required it.
New copyright laws ("new" meaning: 20 years old) in the US don't require such
a statement. In other countries it was never necessary to add a notice, so
many people don't expect it. For example, the old cc65 sources didn't have a
copyright/license note in the sources. This did in no way mean that the code
was not copyrighted. Most files in the cc65 library don't have a license note
either. This too doesn't mean they aren't copyrighted or public domain.

> It's
> much better to dot the Is and the cost is minimal. (But you seem
> to have agreed to do it in the thread.)

Yes, I will do that. And, as it looks now, I will also add a note that I don't
wish any Debian packages to be distributed. I don't like to be flamed for
nothing on every possible occasion, and exactly this is what happens each time
when some Debian people get involved. See

        http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2004/07/msg00027.html

for an update.

I went through all the trouble to download the old sources and dig up pieces
of the old code, just to prove to the Debian people that there is in fact old
code and the old license is still in effect. And at the same time I get
accused of stealing exactly the code I proved not to be written by me.

Last week I thought I would be able to laugh about that in a few days, but
fact is that I cannot find it funny, even today. So the cleanest approach is
probably to explicitly express my wish that I don't want any cc65 Debian
packages. This minimizes the chances that I will have to deal with any Debian
zealots in the future.

Regards


        Uz


-- 
Ullrich von Bassewitz                                  uz@musoftware.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list send mail to majordomo@musoftware.de with
the string "unsubscribe cc65" in the body(!) of the mail.