Legality of src:console-cyrillic (claims "public domain" but I don't think this can be done in the Russian Federation and Kazachstan)?

наб <[email protected]> Tue, 5 Nov 2024 18:12:43 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Message-ID	<x3qzcgoev3pikvgmrg2e37mxxrvy3tpezl3xzgamp7pu6xhhia@tarta.nabijaczleweli.xyz>

Hi!

Looking at https://sources.debian.org/src/console-cyrillic/0.9-17.3, I see:
  d/copyright:
    This is Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of the
    console-tools-cyrillic package of Victor Wagner <[email protected]>,
    <[email protected]>.

    [...]

    The upstream package is in public domain.

    The Debian package includes the following additional fonts:

     * CAG by Andrey Chernomyrdin is public domain and is provided to the
       Debian maintainer by its author.

    [...]

    The debian package also includes all data files from the package
    console-kazakh, version 0.2b.  Upstream authors: Timur Birsh and Erzhan
    Saugabaev.  This package is public domain and it was provided to the
    Debian maintainer by Timur Birsh.

    [...]

    Changes made by the Debian maintainer:
    [...]
     * Added Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and Mongolian keyboard
    mappings.
    [...]
  scripts/dumppsf, scripts/raw2psf, scripts/makeacm:
    =head1 COPYRIGHT

    Public domain. Maide on Earth.
  scripts/displayfont:
    =head1 AUTHOR

    Cyril Slobin <[email protected]>

            Public Domain
            Made on Earth
  scripts/mkvgafont:
    [no notice]
  README:
    ALL PROGRAMS AND DATA FILES IN THIS PACKAGE ARE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
  binary/console-kazakh-0.2b/README.ru (after unpacking d/binary.tar.gz.uu):
    ALL FILES IN THIS PACKAGE ARE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

    [...]

    Дата последней модификации: 2003-06-24.      [Date of last modification]

    --
    Тимур Бирш <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>  [Timur Birsz]
    Ержан Саугабаев <[email protected]>         [Erzhan Saugabayew]
    WWW: http://web.host.kz/pt154

    Жезказган, Казахстан                         [Zhezkazgan, Kazachstan]
  debian/binary/console-kazakh-0.2b/keymap/cyr-kazakh.cpp (after unpacking d/binary.tar.gz.uu):
    !   Author: Cyril Slobin <[email protected]>
    !
    !   Public Domain
    !   Made on Earth
  debian/cyr-mongolian.cpp (and other debian/cyr-*.cpp):
    [clearly programs, but no notices of any kind]

(CAG is an uncopyrightable bitmap font so whatever.)

AFAICT this software was produced in the Russian Federation and Kazachstan,
on this side of the millenium (after both signed the Berne convention),
with no explicit licence given, and it's not yet been 70 years.
I haven't found anything that would indicate that dedicating a work
to the public domain is possible in these jurisdixions,
so these look undistributable to me?

The d-legal archives don't really speak on this AFAICT.

signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, 833 B)