[Freetantrum-devel] Licensing problem with songprint?

[Ingo S. <Ing...@st...>]

MoiN

I am going to package songprint for debian GNU/Linux. However, it
apperars that you are using code from mpg123 which may not be
included in GPLed programs. In the copyrights file to mpg123 it
reads:

> DISTRIBUTION:
> 
> ... [mpg123 must be] distributed in its entirety, ... It may not
> be sold for profit or as "hidden" part of another software, ...

You nowhere seem to mention permissions from the author of mpg123
to distribute his code under the GPL, so this would make
distributing your program illegal. Please don't answer "who
cares" because Debian does.

But there _is_ a variant of mpg123's mpglib you can use under the
conditions of the GPL. It is included in the lame distribution
(http://lame.sourceforge.net/). Using this version would make
your program legal and allow inclusion into debian.

I already replaced the mpglib code in your distribution with that
from lame 3.87. I put my working results as a patch against
songprint 1.1 up on

    http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~ingo/songprint-lame_mpglib.diff

Please consider applying it to replace the non-free mpg123 code
with the GPLed one from lame.

    Ingo
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