Re: [gentoo-dev] LICENSE??

[Ryan Shaw <ryan.shaw@stanfordalumni.org>]

William wrote:

> Ryan Shaw wrote:
>
> > What should the LICENSE variable be set to when
> > creating an ebuild for software with a weird or
> > unknown license?
> 
> That depends, LICENSE="Foo" where "Foo" is a filename in 
> /usr/portage/licenses/ . Foo should match the file name exactly.
> 
> There is a special case called "as-is" please read it for details on it.
> 
> If the licenses is truly unique then we need to add another one to the 
> directory.

The original text of the license is in Japanese. The Debian
package of the software in question (lha) has the following translation:

   It's free to distribute on the network, but if you distribute for
   the people who cannot access the network (by magazine or CD-ROM),
   please send E-Mail (Inter-Net address) to the author before the
   distribution. That's well where this software is appeard.
   If you cannot do, you must send me the E-Mail later.

   Original Source Code License Statement:

   /*    Copyright (C) MCMLXXXIX Yooichi.Tagawa                      */
   /*    Modified                Nobutaka Watazaki                   */
   /*                   Thanks to H.Yoshizaki. (MS-DOS LHarc)        */

As far as I understand it, there is permission to distribute but
not to modify, due to patent issues[*].

Ryan

[*]http://google.com/search?q=cache:www.cpe.surrey.ac.uk/support/faq/gif_lzw.htm