Rosetta Legalese

[|| स्वक्ष]

On 8/1/05, Steve Alexander <steve at canonical.com> wrote:
> Hi Svaksha,
> 
> > From, https://launchpad.ubuntu.com/legal, I gather that  Rosetta is
> > non-GPL software.
> 
> The "legal" page talks about the data that you can download or view on
> the Launchpad website.  It doesn't talk about the Launchpad or Rosetta
> software itself.


What about the files translated by other authors ? 
/quote:
All translations submitted into Rosetta are the work of the translator
that created them, and are submitted under the same license as the
software being translated.
/unquote.

1] Does this mean the translation done by other authors for any other
language is not freely distributable ?
2] Even if the software (example, any Debian package) being translated
is free, the tool used (here Rosetta, non-GPL) for translating a
package is not free.   Then what is the legal status of the final
product (translated software package), GPL or non-GPL?


> > Could someone please clarify what part is under GPL and non-GPL.
> 
> The Rosetta software is not available for downloading.  The data that is
> managed by it is available for downloading.

/quote:
In addition, the translator grants to Canonical Ltd the right to
publish the translation and use the translation in other software
packages under their license.
/unquote.

I am not a legal expert but does the above mean that I cannot freely
use another authors translation even if redistributed under GPL ? or
will Canonical Ltd have to grant permission for reuse ?
Since Rosetta is non GPL if Canonical decides to withdraw support or
if it changed their company license then what happens to that language
package ?


> > Will Rosetta be released under GPL ?
> 
> I hope that sometime Rosetta will be released under an open source
> licence.  There are no concrete plans at the moment.

I hope so too !  
I volunteered for translation with Ubuntu-Linux hoping it would be
available in my local languages for *free* (aka GPL), and its sad that
the volunteer work is bound under a proprietary format at some legal
stage which is all very  confusing and frustrating.
-- 
cheers,
|| स्वक्ष || svaksha