Hello,
I have some questions regarding the code in board_gen. The directory contains
a COPYING file which comprises the GPL, but the code itself contains explicit
copyrights stating that the code is in the public's domain.
Should I ignore the contents of board_gen/COPYING?
pi_make_microsoft_freecell_board.c contains the following potentially
problematic clause:
" This code is under the public domain except for the microsoft_rand() and
microsoft_srand() functions which are copyrighted by Microsoft."
The comments above this clause imply that Microsoft prohibits modifications
and redistribution of its code. I have not seen the mentioned Microsoft copyright
but this probably produces two problems:
o The existing code probably infringes Microsoft's copyright, thus rendering
part of your code or all of it illegal.
o At best freecell-solver-bin will be included in the non-free section of
debian, and it might have implications on the other freecell-solver
packages. This means that packages which depend on freecell-solver will
reside in the contrib section, which is optional.
My suggestion is to replace the problematic routines with free alternatives.
As the routines are not complex nor long, this should be fairly trivial.
Regards, Yotam Rubin
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Received on Thu May 24 2001 - 03:44:01 IDT