Rejecting fluid-soundfont source

Steve Langasek steve.langasek at canonical.com
Fri Feb 15 01:15:29 GMT 2008


Hi Luke,

I'm rejecting the upload of the fluid-soundfont source package.
debian/copyright incorrectly claims that the soundfont is in the "public
domain"; however, a close examination of the accompanying Readme shows that
upstream has used the term "public domain" inconsistently:

 Released to Public Domain on 12/25/01

 ©2000-2002 Frank Wen

 Q:	"Frank, but I don't want to use Megafont! Can I break it up into
 smaller pieces and even make my own custom bank?"

 A:	Well, you can try to weasle your way around using it, but in the end
 it's best to use it, or do whatever it takes to use it megafont. Yes you can
 break it up, but the samples are copyrighted, so you may not redistribute
 any part of my work to public domain without my written consent, but you may
 absolutely do what you want with it on your machine.

 Fluid R3, Copyright 2000-2002 Frank Wen.  All Rights Reserved.
 Fluid.sf at gte.net

Placing a work in the public domain is, by definition, inconsistent with
asserting copyright over it, and upstream has asserted copyright not just
once, but twice in the same file cited as evidence that it's in the public
domain.  Furthermore, the FAQ entry quoted above explicitly prohibits
redistribution of modified works; while that would be ok for multiverse on
its own, it also calls into question whether we have permission to
redistribute the unmodified work either.

Sorry, we need a clearer license grant before redistributing this sound
font.



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