Re: licensing of textutils

[Jim Meyering]

Thanks.
That wording was removed, at the author's request:

  date: 2000/01/21 15:07:53;  ...
  Correct copying notice to use GPL, per author's request.

FYI, the latest test release is here:

  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/fetish/textutils-2.0.20.tar.gz


Peter S Galbraith <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was looking at the sources of textutils and found that:
>
>  - src/cut.c and src/paste.c are copyrighted by David M. Ihnat under
>    this license:
>
>    "This program may be freely copied and distributed, provided this
>     notice remains; it may not be sold for profit without express written
>     consent of the author."
>
>  - a grep for the author "Ihnat" in THANKS or elsewhere in the top level
>    directory yield nothing.
>
> Note that this license is non-free.  It doesn't allow selling (even in
> an aggregate form) and it's doesn't even mention the distribution of
> modified sources.
>
> I really hope this is all a misunderstanding and that the author really
> did sign over this code to the FSF.
>
> If this message goes to a mailing list, please CC me in your reponses.
> I'd be happy to hear quickly about the resolution of this bug, since
> I'd hate to submit a release-critical bug against an essential package
> in Debian GNU/Linux during the current release process of woody.
>
> Thanks for your attention,