On Thu, 24 May 2001, Yotam Rubin wrote:
> 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?
>
No. COPYING there applies only to make_pysol_freecell_board.py which is
based on PySol's code which is in turn GPLed. The other scripts are
distributed under the public domain.
> 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.
>
Well, PySol has the same routines written in Python and they are GPLed. I
could copy it from there, or simply write my own routines based on the
Microsoft code.
I know some licenses prohibit one reading their source
code and writing similar code (e.g: the pre-QPL Qt license). However, I
don't think this is the case for the source of the Microsoft Run-Time
library. Since I know in advance that contacting a Microsoft official
about this issue will be quite useless, I say I'll write my own routines
based on the PySol/Microsoft code, and will make sure to state that they
are under the public domain.
For the while, exclude pi-make-microsoft-freecell-board out of the
package. It's not that critical because in the range of 1-32000,
make_pysol_freecell_board.py can generate the same boards, and out of it
it is only used by Freecell Pro, which is a Windows program.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
> Regards, Yotam Rubin
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish shlomif_at_vipe.technion.ac.il
Home Page:
http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Home E-mail: shlomif_at_techie.com
A more experienced programmer does not make less bugs. He just realizes
what went wrong more quickly.
Received on Thu May 24 2001 - 04:54:33 IDT