Bug 552372 – www-apps/nikola: incorrect LICENSE

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description wjn 2015-06-17 09:02:15 UTC]

in the ebuild files:
> LICENSE="MIT-with-advertising Apache-2.0" # Gutenberg

 Is it correct?

 It seems that Nikola is licensed under MIT, not MIT-with-advertising.
  https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

 Also,
 Indeed one of sample texts ("A Study in Scarlet") is derived from Project Gutenberg,
but it's licensed under the "Project Gutenberg License".
 https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/nikola/data/samplesite/stories/a-study-in-scarlet.txt
(And "A Study in Scarlet" itself is public-domain, I think.)

thanks,

[Comment 1 Ulrich Müller 2015-06-22 10:20:39 UTC]

(In reply to Mika Kobayashi from comment #0)
> in the ebuild files:
> > LICENSE="MIT-with-advertising Apache-2.0" # Gutenberg
> 
>  Is it correct?
> 
>  It seems that Nikola is licensed under MIT, not MIT-with-advertising.
>   https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

Right, it is plain MIT. And some files in nikola/data/themes/bootstrap* are licensed under Apache-2.0.

>  Also,
>  Indeed one of sample texts ("A Study in Scarlet") is derived from Project
> Gutenberg,
> but it's licensed under the "Project Gutenberg License".
>  https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/nikola/data/samplesite/
> stories/a-study-in-scarlet.txt

Unfortunately the Project Gutenberg License is not a free license, due to clause 1.E.7. ("Do not charge a fee ..."). I would suggest contacting upstream, maybe they can include another sample which is free.

> (And "A Study in Scarlet" itself is public-domain, I think.)

Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, so 70 years p.m.a. should be fulfilled indeed. Which means they can keep the same sample but should take it from another source than Project Gutenberg.

[Comment 2 Ben de Groot (RETIRED) 2015-07-08 12:24:16 UTC]

+  08 Jul 2015; Ben de Groot <[e-mail]> +nikola-7.6.0.ebuild,
+  metadata.xml:
+  Version bump. Fix licensing issues (bug #552372).

I fixed up the file with public domain text from Literature.org.

[Comment 3 Alex Xu (Hello71) 2016-02-18 23:10:32 UTC]

(In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #1)
> >  Also,
> >  Indeed one of sample texts ("A Study in Scarlet") is derived from Project
> > Gutenberg,
> > but it's licensed under the "Project Gutenberg License".
> >  https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/nikola/data/samplesite/
> > stories/a-study-in-scarlet.txt
> 
> Unfortunately the Project Gutenberg License is not a free license, due to
> clause 1.E.7. ("Do not charge a fee ..."). I would suggest contacting
> upstream, maybe they can include another sample which is free.

That's a subsection of 1.E which says "1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:" which is enforceable anyways via trademark law.

[Comment 4 Dennis Schridde 2017-03-14 07:17:54 UTC]

(In reply to Alex Xu (Hello71) from comment #3)
> (In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #1)
> > >  Also,
> > >  Indeed one of sample texts ("A Study in Scarlet") is derived from Project
> > > Gutenberg,
> > > but it's licensed under the "Project Gutenberg License".
> > >  https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/blob/master/nikola/data/samplesite/
> > > stories/a-study-in-scarlet.txt
> > 
> > Unfortunately the Project Gutenberg License is not a free license, due to
> > clause 1.E.7. ("Do not charge a fee ..."). I would suggest contacting
> > upstream, maybe they can include another sample which is free.
> 
> That's a subsection of 1.E which says "1.E. Unless you have removed all
> references to Project Gutenberg:" which is enforceable anyways via trademark
> law.

Does this mean, that the file could be shipped, if "Project Gutenberg" would not be mentioned anywhere in the final package?

[Comment 5 Ulrich Müller 2017-03-14 08:22:12 UTC]

(In reply to Dennis Schridde from comment #4)
> Does this mean, that the file could be shipped, if "Project Gutenberg" would
> not be mentioned anywhere in the final package?

Yes. Which is exactly what the ebuild does:

src_prepare() {
        # replace Gutenberg licensed version with our public domain version (bug #552372)
        rm nikola/data/samplesite/stories/a-study-in-scarlet.txt || die
        cp "${DISTDIR}"/a-study-in-scarlet.txt nikola/data/samplesite/stories/ || die
}

See also comment 1:
> Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, so 70 years p.m.a. should be fulfilled
> indeed. Which means they can keep the same sample but should take it from
> another source than Project Gutenberg.

[Comment 6 Dennis Schridde 2017-03-14 10:51:33 UTC]

I though this issue here was what was holding back bug #565846 (cf. bug #565846 comment #5). I assume there is nothing holding back bug #565846, and it is simply abandoned? Maybe the package could just be removed, then?

[Comment 7 Ulrich Müller 2017-03-14 14:00:41 UTC]

(In reply to Dennis Schridde from comment #6)
> I though this issue here was what was holding back bug #565846 (cf. bug
> #565846 comment #5). I assume there is nothing holding back bug #565846, and
> it is simply abandoned? Maybe the package could just be removed, then?

Same there, the works of Guy Boothby (who died in 1905) have entered into the public domain. Don't distribute a version with Project Gutenberg headers, though.