Re: 2xSai has an unclear license and may be removed from a number of programs in Fedora Linux
To whomever it may concern,
Given the confusion (see mail history) on some license issue I wrote some time ago.
I hereby release all versions of 2xSai, old and new, under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version.
I did in fact give the ZSNES and probably some other projects permission a long time ago (don't remember exactly when, but probably when it was either first featured or it went from closed source -> GPL), but I guess it wasn't documented as such in the history.
For future reference you probably can ping me.
[d][e][r][e][k][.][l][i][a][u][w][@][g][m][a][i][l][.][c][o][m]
Remove brackets...
--- On Tue, 10/13/09, Jason A. Spiro jasonspiro4@gmail.com wrote:
From: Jason A. Spiro jasonspiro4@gmail.com Subject: Re: 2xSai has an unclear license and may be removed from a number of programs in Fedora Linux To: "Derek Liauw" derekl666@yahoo.com, "Derek Liauw Kie Fa" derek-liauw@usa.net, "Robert J. Ohannessian" voidstar@ifrance.com Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 4:00 AM Thanks for your reply Derek.
What's your new email address?
I don't check this e-mail often but it's still "in use". Now if yahoo had a forward feature I would use it, but alas...
It would be very helpful if I could write to that email address and CC a public mailing list. This might cause you to get more email about 2xSaI. [ You don't have to reply to all the emails; if need be, you can just reply with the three words "Sorry, I'm busy". :) ] May I please do that CC'ing, even though your new email address will then become public?
Can I forward emails we have sent to each other to public mailing lists or forums?
I looked for a public Snes9x source repository but its repo is actually nonpublic, and Snes9x is under a "non-commercial use only" freeware license.[1] In zsnes's public repo 2xsai.cpp is there[2] in the "deleted files" section of /src/video, but there's no comment, even in the revision log[3], that you gave this permission. So I fear that people will incorrectly think ZSNES relicensed your code without your permission. Plus, there are multiple versions of 2xSaI floating around.
Considering both these points, I think the best thing to do is to reply to this message with a permission notice. Please CC it to a public mailing list like fedora-legal-list@redhat.com or debian-legal@lists.debian.org. Either one is fine, but pick only one. Pick according to your distro preference, or pick fedora-legal-list if you don't care. Write the words "I hereby release all versions of 2xSai, old and new, under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version".
Kind regards, -Jason
^ [1]. http://www.snes9x.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4334 ^ [2]. http://zsnes.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/zsnes/zsnes/src/video/?hideattic=0 ^ [3]. http://zsnes.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/zsnes/zsnes/src/video/2xsai.cpp?hide...
On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Derek Liauw derekl666@yahoo.com wrote:
Wow,
It's been at least 11 years since I wrote the code and
at least 7 years since
I checked this e-mail lol... So just saw this
(somewhat old) by chance. So
hope this still helps.
To be honest I don't care what happens to the code
anymore?
Whatever .zip file is around is probably from my old
xoom/usa.net website.
If I remember correctly I agreed that newer versions
of the code could be
released under GPL with ZSNES a long time ago (which I
integrated and agreed
with the original author "_zsKnight").
And yes I probably neglected to update all
pre-existing files/my abandoned
website and such.
My bad, but 1. I don't think my website exists
anymore. 2. If it does exist
I probably don't know how to update it and the .zip
distro. 3. I haven't
felt like making a new website for quite a while :P 4.
I consider ZSNES or
the Snes9x projects as the new "source" of the
file(s), since those are newer
versions / I more or less integrated them there, and I
assume the files
source files already have a GPL license. (my memory
isn't that great).
Hope that helps.
--- On Thu, 7/30/09, Jason A. Spiro jasonspiro4@gmail.com
wrote:
From: Jason A. Spiro jasonspiro4@gmail.com Subject: 2xSaI has an unclear license and may be
removed from a number of programs in Fedora Linux
To: "Derek Liauw Kie Fa" derek-liauw@usa.net,
"Derek Liauw Kie Fa" derekl666@yahoo.com, "Robert J. Ohannessian" voidstar@ifrance.com
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009, 11:06 PM Hi,
Derek's website[1] has a downloadable copy of
2xSaI
available for download. The text of the website says "GPL",
but the
readme file says something contradictory:
2xSaI Utility v0.7 Copyright (c) Derek Liauw Kie Fa, 1999 Comments, Suggestions, Questions, Bugs etc.: derek-liauw@usa.net http://members.xoom.com/derek_liauw/ This program is free for non-commercial use.
Is the program GPLed (which means it is free to
sell,
modify, and more), or is it merely free for non-commercial
use?
If it is GPLed, then Derek, could you please update the zipfile to
say so,
and email me the updated file?
If you do not answer, then Fedora Linux may have
to rip out
2xSaI from many programs included on the Fedora DVD. This
will
be a lot of work, and will make those programs worse. :) This
is
because Fedora does not allow software which is only free for
non-commercial
use on their DVD. They require that the DVD be allowed to be sold.
Note that I don't represent or volunteer for
Fedora.
I am just telling you their policies.
Kind regards, -Jason Spiro
^ [1]. http://web.archive.org/elektron.its.tudelft.nl/~dalikifa/
-
Derek Liauw