Re: Non-free file in scheme48 source emacs/cmulisp.el

At Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:42:49 +0200,
[email protected] wrote:
> I currently maintain scheme48 in Debian. I just wanted to inform you that there is one file in the source with an invariant clause inconsistent with scheme48's 3-clause BSD license.
> 
> emacs/cmulisp.el has a license that prohibits distribution for money:
> 
> ;;; Copyright Olin Shivers (1988).
> ;;; Please imagine a long, tedious, legalistic 5-page gnu-style
> copyright
> ;;; notice appearing here to the effect that you may use this code any
> ;;; way you like, as long as you don't charge money for it, remove this
> ;;; notice, or hold me liable for its results.
> 
> I was unable to contact Olin Shivers to get the license changed.[1]
> 
> Obviously you might not really care if this file is still in the sources
> since the intent of the license seems to suggest that it should be
> consistent with 3-clause BSD, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up in
> case you weren't aware of it and/or could perhaps contact Olin to ask him
> about the status of the license. For the Debian package I have rebuilt the
> tarball to remove this file.

I'm perfectly happy for you to distribute that code under the Debian-approved
license.

As Jonathan remarked, the original versions of these modes (comint, shell,
etc.) that I wrote in the 80's got messed up when the Gnu folks folded it 
into gnu-emacs, at the direction of RMS. Alas.
    -Olin