LWN: Comments on "What's new in gnuplot 5.2"

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

rav — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 02:20:06 +0000

Luckily you can just release your modifications using a distributed source code control system such as Git which makes it easy* to view and work with the officially released version alongside the patches.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

dvrabel — Wed, 31 May 2017 12:20:54 +0000

Clarifying that pseudonyms and email addresses satisfy clause 3 would be sufficient.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

pabs — Wed, 31 May 2017 01:53:21 +0000

FYI, the DFSG have a clause that was specifically designed for these kind of licenses:

https://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

k8to — Tue, 30 May 2017 20:51:07 +0000

For anyone interested, this is far more authoritative than any of the thread so far, or at least more authoritative than my guesswork.

https://lwn.net/Articles/486466/

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

k8to — Tue, 30 May 2017 20:47:27 +0000

Sure enough. I misinterpreted the scenario of "gnuplot is not distributed as a whole under the GPL" or similar, combined with the current copyright file comments in the faq.

It seems that the GPL components are recent dual-licensed additions (for some values of recent.)

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

sfeam — Tue, 30 May 2017 19:51:41 +0000

I think you are over-interpreting the +dfsg tag. From the DebianMentorsFaq:

What does “dfsg” in the version string mean? “+dfsg.N” is a conventional way of extending a version string, when the Debian package's upstream source tarball is actually different from the source released upstream.

There are currently 7 Debian-specific patches in the Alioth git repository for packaging gnuplot. Only two of these affect the actual source code (one removes inclusion of an "Author" tag in generated PDF files, the other changes the default time format for I don't know what reason). The remaining patches tweak the configuration files to play nicely with Debian's build system.

If you have specific licensing concerns that are fixable, please contact me off-line and we can try to address them.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

leephillips — Tue, 30 May 2017 19:46:15 +0000

"I suppose this preserves all freedoms, just not with convenience."

I suppose it does, at least in the opinion of the FSF (see my link above). Note also that the FSF used to actually distribute gnuplot.

"A subset of gnuplot is still effectively under the GPL, because it originally was licensed as such"

This doesn't sound likely. The first version of the GPL was disseminated in 1989¹. Gnuplot was publicly released in 1986 (as far as I can tell).

¹https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copying-1.0.html

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

k8to — Tue, 30 May 2017 19:29:04 +0000

Self-correction, the gnuplot license follows with:

> Modifications are to be distributed as patches to the released version.

I suppose this preserves all freedoms, just not with convenience.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

k8to — Tue, 30 May 2017 19:25:51 +0000

I think this is incorrect.

See http://gnuplot.cvs.sourceforge.net/gnuplot/gnuplot/Copyri...

It says quite clearly:

> Permission to modify the software is granted, but not the right to
> distribute the complete modified source code.

That seems to violate the "four freedoms" definition of free software, specifically "Freedom 3", the right to distribute copies of your modified version to others.

A subset of gnuplot is still effectively under the GPL, because it originally was licensed as such, so it's possible that Debian is distributing that subset, or it's possible that the Debian maintainer made a mistake.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

leephillips — Tue, 30 May 2017 18:49:44 +0000

Your comment inspired me to look even more closely. The files that had to be removed are some example scripts, included as files in the "demo" directory, that bear a copyright notice. They were contributed by a third party who attached a copyright notice to them, years ago. The actual gnuplot program is free software, according to the FSF¹. Its license is incompatible with the GPL, but that doesn't mean it's not free.

”So by your own standards, gnuplot is *not* "free enough”

That would be denying the antecedent.²

¹https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html
²http://www.fallacyfiles.org/denyante.html

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

Jonno — Tue, 30 May 2017 17:53:19 +0000

> Gnuplot, including v. 5¹, is available as a Debian package. I admit I'm not an expert on all the minutiae relating to the various subtle shades of software freedom, but, as a rough guide, if it's in the main Debian distribution I call it free enough.

If you look closely, you see that they have repackage the source with a "+dfsg" version suffix. That means that the Debian maintainer had to remove something non-free in order for the the free parts of the package to be included in Debian.

So by your own standards, gnuplot is *not* "free enough", though apparently a useful subset of gnuplot is.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

leephillips — Tue, 30 May 2017 17:28:12 +0000

The license is linked to in the introductory article that this article links to. Gnuplot, including v. 5¹, is available as a Debian package. I admit I'm not an expert on all the minutiae relating to the various subtle shades of software freedom, but, as a rough guide, if it's in the main Debian distribution I call it free enough.

¹https://packages.debian.org/sid/gnuplot

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

dvrabel — Tue, 30 May 2017 17:18:12 +0000

I think it's worth pointing out the license as it's possibly non-free.

Clause 3 of gnuplot's license (provide your name and address as the primary contact for the support of your modified version) makes it non-free according to my reading of the DFSG and the dissident test from the DFSG FAQ[1].

[1] https://people.debian.org/~bap/dfsg-faq.html

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

leephillips — Tue, 30 May 2017 09:55:16 +0000

This is mentioned in the introductory article that is linked in the first paragraph.

What's new in gnuplot 5.2

ehiggs — Tue, 30 May 2017 08:21:42 +0000

Some might not realize that gnuplot is not distributed by the GNU project of FSF. It is not even GPL licensed. From the FAQ:

http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/faq.html#x1-120001.7

"""
Gnuplot is neither written nor maintained by the FSF. At one time it was distributed by the FSF but this is no longer true. Gnuplot as a whole is not covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Gnuplot is freeware in the sense that you don’t have to pay for it. However it is not freeware in the sense that you would be allowed to distribute a modified version of your gnuplot freely. Please read and accept the modification and redistribution terms in the Copyright file.
"""

Maybe I'm weird but I keep thinking that people need to be made aware of this.

using DomTerm output

Per_Bothner — Tue, 30 May 2017 02:36:32 +0000

Here is a short blog article on using DomTerm with gnuplot. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.