Re: Ada in Debian: most libraries will switch to the pure GPL in Etch

[M E Leypold <development-2006-8ecbb5cc8aREMOVETHIS@ANDTHATm-e-leypold.de>]

Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> writes:

> No, the issue is the one you described in your first sentence.  The
> headers or COPYING file have no legal force, precisely because you
> cannot prove that they apply to the software, and that they were
> written by the author of the software.  So, what Robert Dewar said is:
> to be sure, you must ask the author.

But can you rely on the author? Perhaps he is drunk at the time he
answers or it's really the cleaning woman using his/her computer
(illegally of course). 

I mean -- where should all that end? 

It is hardly believable that the author(s) (say ACT ...) distributed
the libraries in question _years_ without aver noticing those
copyright headers and COPYING files. If they did and left them in
place (or well, did them put there themselves), that would constitute
a declaration of intent, which IMHO seems mor convincing than some old
e-mail I get from adacore.com: After all, E-Mail headers can be
forged. But years of bootleg copies of GtkAda with copyright headers
inserted without the knowledge of ACT, distributed even from the ACT
site. 

Ridiculous.

Regards -- Markus