Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 426827
Review Request: perl-DateTime-Precise - Perform common time and date operations with additional GPS operations
Last modified: 2008-01-31 16:25:18 EST
Spec URL: http://washington.kelkoo.net/fedora/SPECS/perl-DateTime-Precise.spec SRPM URL: http://washington.kelkoo.net/fedora/SRPMS/perl-DateTime-Precise-1.05-2.fc8.src.rpm Description: The purpose of this library was to replace our dependence on Unix epoch time, which, being limited to a range of about 1970 to 2030, is inadequate for our purposes (we have data as old as 1870). This date library effectively handles dates from A.D. 1000 to infinity, and would probably work all the way back to 0 (ignoring, of course, the switch-over to the Gregorian calendar). The useful features of Unix epoch time (ease of date difference calculation and date comparison, strict ordering) are preserved, and elements such as human-legibility are added. The library handles fractional seconds and some date/time manipulations used for the Global Positioning Satellite system.
From following text written in Precise.pm # This code is a heavily modified version of Greg Fast's # (gdfast@usgs.gov) DateTime.pm package. This version includes # subsecond precision on all calculations and a whole bunch of # additional method calls. But when I checked /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/DateTime.pm I see that author is different. Unable to verify license
yup, this is rather confusing. I can't find anything about license for this code anywhere. I've submitted a bug upstream : http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=32186
thanks
After the contact with current upstream maintainer did not bring much, I've contacted the original author of the code, Greg Fast. Here's what he wrote about the license of the code : _start of quote_ As far as I'm concerned, the code Blair extended into DateTime::Precise is public domain. At the time (~10 years ago) I was young and clueless about anything related to licensing, and as far as I can tell from my own archive there was never an explicit license or copyright released with the code. Since it was developed mostly on their time and for their web app, I'm sure it should properly be considered a work-for-hire for the USGS, with the copyright (and any legally binding call on a license) ultimately going to them. Having said that, I'd be surprised if there'd be anyone at USGS at all interested in staking any claim over it. The app which it was a part of has now been offline for 2-3 years. _end of quote_ I've asked for further clarification, like contact his former employer, USGS, but I don't expect much to come out of this. What would be the next step to move this forward ?
I think good to contact spot(Tom Callaway) or legal mailing list (fedora-legal-list@redhat.com => only members can post to this list) for this license issue.
Spot, could you please kindly take a look at this legal issue ?
If the original author releases it into the Public Domain, then it is Public Domain. Mark it as that in the License: tag.
Sure, but the original author only stated that in a private mail and the work was done when he was hired by USGS. Would asking upstream to state 'Copyright USGS' and license 'Public Domain' somewhere within the package be enough and above all, be legal ?
In the US, you do not need to declare copyright, it is implicit (the Berne Convention provides it), but this is a little tricker, because the author wrote this code while working at the USGS. Since the USGS is a division of the United States Government, this code is considered "a work of the United States government" which, as defined by United States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. government as part of that person's official duties." All such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S. law, sometimes referred to as "noncopyright." They are considered to automatically be in the Public Domain. (The only possible exception to this would be if the author was writing this code as a contractor for the USGS, and part of the contract specified the copyright and licensing for the code. Since this is obviously not the case, we can ignore this exception.) So, we're ok to ship this, marked as Public Domain.
Thanks a lot for the explanations Spot. I'll upload a package with fixed License: field later tonight.
Updated package : Spec URL: http://washington.kelkoo.net/fedora/SPECS/perl-DateTime-Precise.spec SRPM URL: http://washington.kelkoo.net/fedora/SRPMS/perl-DateTime-Precise-1.05-3.fc8.src.rpm
Review: + package builds in mock (development i386). + rpmlint is silent for SRPM and for RPM. + source files match upstream url 05845b6e53a528b406d10a231d0af091 DateTime-Precise-1.05.tar.gz + package meets naming and packaging guidelines. + specfile is properly named, is cleanly written + Spec file is written in American English. + Spec file is legible. + dist tag is present. + build root is correct. + license is open source-compatible. + License text is included in package. + %doc is present. + BuildRequires are proper. + %clean is present. + package installed properly. + Macro use appears rather consistent. + Package contains code, not content. + no headers or static libraries. + no .pc file present. + no -devel subpackage + no .la files. + no translations are available + Does owns the directories it creates. + no scriptlets present. + no duplicates in %files. + file permissions are appropriate. + make test output is t/01date_time....ok All tests successful. Files=1, Tests=204, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.29 cusr + 0.00 csys = 0.29 CPU) + Package perl-DateTime-Precise-1.05-3.fc9 -> Provides: perl(DateTime::Precise) = 1.05 Requires: perl >= 0:5.004_04 perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.8) perl(Carp) perl(Exporter) perl(integer) perl(strict) perl(vars) APPROVED.
New Package CVS Request ======================= Package Name: perl-DateTime-Precise Short Description: Perform common time and date operations with additional GPS operations Owners: xavierb Branches: F-8 EL-4 EL-5 InitialCC: Cvsextras Commits: yes
cvs done.
Imported and built for devel, F-8, EL-4 and EL-5.