Re: [Plugins-writers] On the copyright of the Nessus reports...

From: Javier Fernandez-Sanguino (jfernandez@private)
Date: Thu Dec 11 2003 - 23:52:37 PST

  • Next message: Javier Fernandez-Sanguino: "Re: [Plugins-writers] On the copyright of the Nessus reports..."

    Richard Moore wrote:
    > 
    > 
    > Renaud Deraison wrote:
    > 
    >> I don't really think that it means anything to have a text file licensed
    >> under the GPL. The GPL deals with linking, machine code, and a lot of 
    >> things which do not apply to plugin text, which is why I consider that
    >> "traditional" text copyright applies to the report text (otherwise, does
    >> it mean that if you load the GPL report with a text editor, your text
    >> editor falls under the GPL since you "link" the report within the 
    >> editor ?)
    
    No. If you modify the _source_ of a GPL thing (the text being that 
    thing), you can use any program to do it. Consider the text C source 
    code and you will get my meaning.
    
    > That's very true, in fact there has been a long standing warning against 
    > the use of the GPL for documentation (which in a way this is). If you 
    
    Where? I have never seen that and there's a lot of technical 
    documentation GPLd. As a matter of fact, when the code is GPLd it 
    makes all the sense to license its documentation GPLd since there 
    might some instances in which you are able to change the code but 
    _not_ change the documentation it comes along with.
    
    > want an 'equivalent' license for this sort of the Free Documentation 
    > License might be worth a look. People of a Debian persuation should be 
    > careful though as there has been a row about this license and whether 
    > the facility to have invariant sections violates the debian guidelines.
    
    There's a lot more than invariant sections being discussed, that's 
    just the tip of the iceberg, see below.
    
    > 
    > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#FDL
    
    Ok. I don't think I want another FDL debate here, but there it goes. 
    FDL is _not_ free. Period. I would recommend you read the position 
    statement Manoj (a fellow Debian developer) drafted about it (from 
    Google's cache since people.debian.org is not fully functional):
    
    http://www.google.es/search?q=cache:SErldDCN1KMJ:people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.html+%22Position+Statement+about+the+GNU+Free+documentation+License%22&hl=es&ie=UTF-8
    
    One of the thing that most applies to reports generated by Nessus is 
    the "3. COPYING IN QUANTITY" clause.
    
    I wouldn't recommended GFDL for texts since:
    
    a) GPL and GFDL are inherently incompatible licenses (you cannot have 
    both in the same thing). And NASL scripts are, foremost, GPLd, that 
    includes the text within them.
    
    b) GFDL is targeted towards complete works (books, articles and such) 
    and not text snippets. Many things don't really apply and might 
    inhibit use or make people violate it unknowingly.
    
    Regards
    
    Javi
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