Re: [Devel] Translation Project and FreeType

[Karl Eichwalder]

Antoine Leca <address@hidden> writes:

Hello Antoine,

thanks for your answer!

> I am the last person that did any translation work for French (a bit)
> and Spanish (much more extensively), so I probably qualify to join there.
> However, I am concerned by the requirement to place all my (translation)
> work under FSF copyright. I do understand that this is correct according
> to the GNU project, but I do fail to see why this requirement shall be
> enforced for a project (like ours) which do not require any disclaimer

For projects like freetype disclaimers are not required and it isn't
necessary to transfer the copyright to the FSF.  But please add a clear
notice to the header of your translation that you've put your file in
the Public Domain (or something like that).

If a document under http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/ isn't
clear enough about this issue, please tell us about it: we'd like to
improve the project description!

> (BTW, it is not clear to me if the acceptance of my resignation of
> copyright rights toward FSF is really needed to "submit" the job
> already done for freetype 1.3.x).

It's a little bit hairy to transfer available translations to the
Translation Project.  We don't have to distinctive roadmap for this kind
of action at the moment.  OTOH, it's possible to release pieces of work
under several licenses as long a the Copyright owner(s) agree(s) to do
so.

> Also, a related point is that I feel reading (a while back) that the
> idea was to place the translations under GPL. Again, while this makes
> perfect sense for the GNU "packages", and while it fits perfectly with the
> requirement for the assignment of copyright to FSF, on the other side
> such a requisite will be a real nuisance for a package such as ours, which
> is intended to be bound either with GPL-ed softwares *and* with some
> commercial others (to the general audience: the GPL requires that any
> derivative to have the sources available; the `Freetype' license is not
> so constraining).

I see your point.  First: the GPL isn't required for freetype
translations.  2nd: With translations it's a two-step-issue as long a
packages are involved where the FSF is the copyright holder:

    . You disclaim all copyright interest in your works (-> Public
    Domain).

    . Thus the Free Software Foundation is allowed to assign a copyright
    to the translation.

Hope this helps; if there are still open questions (IANAL!), don't
hesitate to ask and feel free to add address@hidden to the Cc: list.

All the best,
Karl

-- 
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