Re: [Chessdb-users] some bugs

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Christian Pinedo Zamalloa wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2007 at 08:50:20AM +0100, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> 
>>Christian Pinedo Zamalloa wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>I'm Christian Pinedo (my nickname zako) and I was working some time ago
>>>with Dr. Kirkby on making a Debian package of ChessDB. Preliminary
>>>packages are available at [1] and a debian developer has emailed me and
>>>said that he's interested on sponsoring the package. A great new.
>>>
>>>[1] http://bipt106.bi.ehu.es/debian/packages/chessdb/
>>>
>>>But to package chessdb some issues about the copyright and licenses
>>>should be well defined. I think this issues should be also interesting
>>>for you and so I have opened some bugs in the BTS of chessdb.
>>>
>>>1. The chessdb source distribution "chessdb-3.6.15.tar.gz" includes
>>>software from third parties: phalanx, zlib, ... That in my opinion
>>>shouldn't been distributed but you should write in the readme/install
>>>file that should be necesary/recommended to have installed some software in
>>>order to compile/use chessdb. This is the standard way. 
>>
>>Yes, I tend to agree with you about zlib. I based ChessDB on Scid, where 
>>Shane had included zlib. I think he did it as a convenience. In any 
>>case, I find it hard to believe there are that many people will not have 
>>zlib installed, or if they don't, it would be listed as a dependency.
>>
> 
> 
> In fact, in order to compile chessdb from source in GNU/Linux I need to
> have installed zlib development files (in debian they are available
> thanks to the  zlib1g-dev package) because if I don't have this package
> the configuration process gives the following error:
> 
> # ./configure 
> ...
> Checking if your system already has zlib installed: no.
> ...
> 
> So I understand that the zlib sources provided by ChessDB are not really
> used in the build process.
> 
> 
>>The Phalanx is not actually used at all, so I was thinking of removing 
>>that.
>>
>>
>>>2. Furthermore, some parts chessdb is based on like sounds, bitmaps,
>>>bitmaps2, tablebases, ... could have copyright and license
>>>different of the chessdb.
>>
>>The sounds were distributed with scid which was GPL'ed. I can't say I 
>>know exactly the source of them, but they have been available in a 
>>GPL'ed software for a very long time.
>>
>>I can't see what is the problem with the bitmaps either. They are from 
>>the GPL'ed Scid and appear to be modified versions of bitmaps released 
>>under the GPL.
>>
>>I will concede I am not sure about the tablebases. Perhaps all the 
>>tablebases should be removed, and added as an "extras" package which may 
>>or may not be available on debian. Perhaps that will improve matters.
>>
> 
> 
> I did this question because in the COPYING file there are only two
> Copyrights about the ChessDB software, Shane and David, but in some
> files other copyrights appear: download.tcl (Warren Lewis & David),


But COPYING does say:

"Other copyrights exists for some parts of ChessDB too. See the source 
files."

Its difficult to make a totally exhaustive list, since the information 
is not always readily available. I


> pane.tcl (Lucent Technologies & Mark Harrison), telnet.tcl (Todd J
> Martin), 

I asked Todd Martin whether I could incorportant his tcltelnet package 
some months back, since it it *not* a GPL'ed program. This was his reply:

 > There is no problem with that.  This is exactly why I chose the
 > BSD license.  I want people to be able to easily use this and
 > embed it in other applications.  I'm glad you find tcltelnet useful.


so that was is easy to solve.

> init.tcl (Regents of the University of California, Sun
> Microsystems, ...), ... 

I think init.tcl is distibuted along with the gpl'ed tcl package. I'll 
check that one.

> Although I don't know if last files are part of
> ChessDB or are third party software distributed inside ChessDB.

> In case of being part of scid/chessdb there is no problem because the
> license is GPL "version 2 or any later". But in case of being part of
> other software should be explained more detailed which part is a third
> party software with which copyright and which license.

OK, I will do this.

> In the case of sounds and bitmaps, they form part of scid/chessdb and if
> they was made by scid project the license and copyrights are clear.

Well that is no different to zlib, since that was part of Scid.

> About the tablebases, you should know who is their author (copyright) and the
> licensed under they are distributed (public domain, GPL, ...)

The tablebases are the most complex, as I fully admit I don't know.

> I don't want to say to you what you should delete from ChessDB source
> realease or not. You make a great software and I enjoy it. If you
> consider that is better for the general user to distribute
> phalanx/tablebases/zlib instead of indicating the software
> needed/recommended in a file like README or INSTALL I could agree with
> you. But I would be very pleased if the contributions of third party
> software should be better indicated or better organized because I will
> have to delete them before uploading to Debian.

OK, will do. I think I will delete phalanx and zlib anyway. I'm not sure 
they serve a particularly useful purpose.

> This is my point of view that could be wrong. My english is very basic
> so if something sounds impolite that is not my intention :-). 
> 
> Regards,

Leave it with me. I will make a new release, removing some of these 
extra files, with some extra notes/explanations in places.

Dave