I've always had a sig generator, but until recently it was raw homebrew stuff. Then I found the Signify package, but it didn't do quite what I wanted, so I hacked another feature into it. I emailed the author to tell him about the change, but he didn't respond. The other thing is that the package is public domain, and I'd rather have my work under a license. My understanding of public domain is that anyone can do anything they want with it, including add their own license to it. So, although I realise this is untenably rude if the author is still out there, I'm considering GPL'ing and adopting the package. Is this legal, first of all? Am I breaking the 'all linked code must be GPL' in reverse? I don't think I am, because his code will be available more freely than GPL. Second, what criteria need to be met for a package to be orphaned? Bear in mind I've only just started USING Debian, let alone packaging, so all advice and webpages welcome. Alexis -- Failure- When your best just isn't good enough. For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. - H L Mencken
Alexis Lee <memehack@btopenworld.com> wrote:
Is this legal, first of all? Am I breaking the 'all linked code must be GPL' in reverse? I don't think I am, because his code will be available more freely than GPL.
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CombinePublicDomainWithGPL It looks like yes, but be aware of this problem and clearly mark which is yours and the original.
Second, what criteria need to be met for a package to be orphaned? Bear in mind I've only just started USING Debian, let alone packaging, so all advice and webpages welcome.
For a Deb package, it needs the previous maintainer to have announced its orphaning and filed a bug against the "wnpp" package. (Work Needed, Packages Pending). http://bugs.debian.org/wnpp Probably also good to read bits of http://www.uk.debian.org/doc/ In general, http://unmaintained.sourceforge.net/ may list unmaintained software, but it sometimes gets it wrong.
participants (2)
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Alexis Lee -
MJ Ray