Bug #54545 for Audio-Wav: Missing Copyright Information

Fri Feb 12 08:32:21 2010 JAWNSY [...] cpan.org - Ticket created

Subject:

Missing Copyright Information

Hi: While packaging the latest version of your module for Debian, I noticed that it doesn't seem to mention copyright information, though the LICENSE file does have an appropriate licensing clause. In Debian we need copyright/license information for all of the packages we upload. Could you give us (replying to this bug report is fine): years of copyright, copyright holders' names, copyright holders' e-mail addresses. Unfortunately without this information we cannot upload it. This is more than just a Debian issue. I'm not a lawyer, but it's my understanding that both copyright and licensing information is vital for the continued success of open source software. Copyright is what allows you to assert a license, and a license is what ensures open source remains open source, and that users can make use of your software. A great article discussing some of this is "What is Copyleft?" by Richard Stallman: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/ Thanks for releasing your work to the CPAN. I apologize in advance for the noise, as I understand that the last thing most authors want to deal with is legal administrivia like this. I do hope, however, that you could (in your continued generosity) help us with this request. Please also consider adding these statements to your code/package README, since we must distribute some evidence of copyright information if it is not in the source package itself. Cheers, Jonathan On behalf of the Debian Perl Team

Fri Feb 12 13:45:27 2010 brianski [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Thanks Jonathan. Where exactly do you need the copyright information? The LICENSE file already has it - do you need it in each of the .pm's or what? Thanks, Brian Szymanski

Fri Feb 12 13:45:31 2010 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Fri Feb 12 16:28:20 2010 JAWNSY [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Hi Brian, Thanks for the reply. The copy I see says only: This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Which is the license clause. However, this isn't the copyright -- that would be something like: Copyright 2009-2010, Brian Szymanski <email@address.com> It would be best to place it in either README or LICENSE (either is fine), rather than in each .pm, since you'd have to update each .pm (and this could be tedious, not to mention them becoming out of sync with each other). So all I suggest is adding the above "copyright statement" line to the LICENSE file. For reasons why it's necessary, please see Richard Stallman's great article on copyleft (and why open source needs copyright to continue). Hope this helps clarify things for you a bit. Thanks, Jonathan On Fri Feb 12 13:45:27 2010, BRIANSKI wrote: Show quoted text

> Thanks Jonathan. Where exactly do you need the copyright information? > The LICENSE file already has it - do you need it in each of the .pm's or > what? > > Thanks, > Brian Szymanski

Sat Feb 13 23:21:07 2010 brianski [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Ah! I have added this information in Audio::Wav 0.10, which I just uploaded to pause. You should be able to download it in the next 24 hours. Please let me know when you receive it and have packaged it for debian, I'm keeping the ticket open until then. Thanks! Brian Szymanski On Fri Feb 12 16:28:20 2010, JAWNSY wrote: Show quoted text

> Hi Brian, > > Thanks for the reply. The copy I see says only: > > This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or > modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. > > Which is the license clause. However, this isn't the copyright -- that > would be something like: > > Copyright 2009-2010, Brian Szymanski <email@address.com> > > It would be best to place it in either README or LICENSE (either is > fine), rather than in each .pm, since you'd have to update each .pm (and > this could be tedious, not to mention them becoming out of sync with > each other). > > So all I suggest is adding the above "copyright statement" line to the > LICENSE file. For reasons why it's necessary, please see Richard > Stallman's great article on copyleft (and why open source needs > copyright to continue). > > Hope this helps clarify things for you a bit. > > Thanks, > > Jonathan > > On Fri Feb 12 13:45:27 2010, BRIANSKI wrote:

> > Thanks Jonathan. Where exactly do you need the copyright information? > > The LICENSE file already has it - do you need it in each of the .pm's or > > what? > > > > Thanks, > > Brian Szymanski

> >

Sat Feb 13 23:21:14 2010 brianski [...] cpan.org - Taken

Mon Feb 15 19:34:34 2010 brianski [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Also I suggest a recommends on the libinline-perl package, which greatly increases performance if available. Cheers, Brian On Sat Feb 13 23:21:07 2010, BRIANSKI wrote: Show quoted text

> Ah! I have added this information in Audio::Wav 0.10, which I just > uploaded to pause. You should be able to download it in the next 24 > hours. Please let me know when you receive it and have packaged it for > debian, I'm keeping the ticket open until then. > > Thanks! > Brian Szymanski > > On Fri Feb 12 16:28:20 2010, JAWNSY wrote:

> > Hi Brian, > > > > Thanks for the reply. The copy I see says only: > > > > This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or > > modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. > > > > Which is the license clause. However, this isn't the copyright -- that > > would be something like: > > > > Copyright 2009-2010, Brian Szymanski <email@address.com> > > > > It would be best to place it in either README or LICENSE (either is > > fine), rather than in each .pm, since you'd have to update each .pm (and > > this could be tedious, not to mention them becoming out of sync with > > each other). > > > > So all I suggest is adding the above "copyright statement" line to the > > LICENSE file. For reasons why it's necessary, please see Richard > > Stallman's great article on copyleft (and why open source needs > > copyright to continue). > > > > Hope this helps clarify things for you a bit. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Jonathan > > > > On Fri Feb 12 13:45:27 2010, BRIANSKI wrote:

> > > Thanks Jonathan. Where exactly do you need the copyright information? > > > The LICENSE file already has it - do you need it in each of the

.pm's or Show quoted text

> > > what? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Brian Szymanski

> > > >

> >

Mon Feb 15 20:27:00 2010 JAWNSY [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Mon Feb 15 19:34:34 2010, BRIANSKI wrote: Show quoted text

> Also I suggest a recommends on the libinline-perl package, which greatly > increases performance if available.

This is already done (thanks to the previous people who have worked on libaudio-wav-perl). I haven't looked into your situation, but if you're using Inline to accelerate your code (provide C implementations of your functions), you probably want to use XS and the normal toolchain instead (thus providing the performance benefit, without the cost of installing Inline). I haven't responded yet because I've been waiting to see if a Debian Developer sponsors and uploads the libaudio-wav-perl version with appropriate copyright. Once that happens, I'll mark this bug as resolved.

Tue Feb 16 13:55:33 2010 brianski [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Mon Feb 15 20:27:00 2010, JAWNSY wrote: Show quoted text

> On Mon Feb 15 19:34:34 2010, BRIANSKI wrote:

> > Also I suggest a recommends on the libinline-perl package, which greatly > > increases performance if available.

> > This is already done (thanks to the previous people who have worked on > libaudio-wav-perl).

Really? That surprises me, since the Inline::C stuff was only added in version 0.07 (released Feb. 7th of this year). Show quoted text

> I haven't looked into your situation, but if you're using Inline > to accelerate your code (provide C implementations of your > functions), you probably want to use XS and the normal toolchain > instead (thus providing the performance benefit, without the cost of > installing Inline).

We may migrate to XS from Inline::C down the road, but it isn't considered a priority right now as most people who need performance just install Inline::C. Show quoted text

> I haven't responded yet because I've been waiting to see if a Debian > Developer sponsors and uploads the libaudio-wav-perl version with > appropriate copyright. Once that happens, I'll mark this bug as > resolved.

Great. Thanks again. Brian Szymanski

Tue Feb 16 14:54:30 2010 JAWNSY [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Hi, The current version (0.10) is now uploaded to Debian and contains the appropriate copyright information: http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/liba/libaudio-wav-perl/libaudio-wav-perl_0.10-1/libaudio-wav-perl.copyright On Tue Feb 16 13:55:33 2010, BRIANSKI wrote: Show quoted text

> On Mon Feb 15 20:27:00 2010, JAWNSY wrote:

> > On Mon Feb 15 19:34:34 2010, BRIANSKI wrote:

> > > Also I suggest a recommends on the libinline-perl package, which

greatly Show quoted text

> > > increases performance if available.

> > > > This is already done (thanks to the previous people who have worked on > > libaudio-wav-perl).

> > Really? That surprises me, since the Inline::C stuff was only added in > version 0.07 (released Feb. 7th of this year).

We work surprisingly fast. There is a web application we use to track our current versions of the 1500+ packages we maintain, and it notifies us whenever there is a new upstream version. Then we inspect files like META.yml and the Changes file to get an idea of what we need to do. You can view it at: http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/pet.cgi Show quoted text

> > I haven't looked into your situation, but if you're using Inline > > to accelerate your code (provide C implementations of your > > functions), you probably want to use XS and the normal toolchain > > instead (thus providing the performance benefit, without the cost of > > installing Inline).

> > We may migrate to XS from Inline::C down the road, but it isn't > considered a priority right now as most people who need performance just > install Inline::C.

It's actually a lot easier than it might seem at first, and if you ping me later (either via e-mail or IRC), I'd love to take a look and see if I can help out. I've some experience working with XS modules (and you can take a look at some of them in http://search.cpan.org/~jawnsy/ - notably the ISAAC one). Anyway, I'm marking this as resolved now. Thanks again for your contribution to CPAN, and indirectly to Debian too. Cheers, Jonathan

Tue Feb 16 14:54:41 2010 JAWNSY [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'