Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

[Qiantan Hong]

I’ve been always wanting a good music notation software in Emacs.
I just came across this https://gist.github.com/mjkramer/171ff6af9c66404a81e38d2015848903
(for tab, not standard notation, but ok tab is much more suitable for plain text workflow anyway)
It’s a package from 1993 and seems that it did lots of non trivial work,
however there’s no license notice and I don’t know if it’s possible to pick up the development.

Do you have any idea? Do you find this package anywhere else with some license or 
anyone know the author?

Best,
Qiantan

Re: Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

[Philip Kaludercic]

Qiantan Hong <qhong@mit.edu> writes:

> I’ve been always wanting a good music notation software in Emacs.
> I just came across this https://gist.github.com/mjkramer/171ff6af9c66404a81e38d2015848903
> (for tab, not standard notation, but ok tab is much more suitable for plain text workflow anyway)
> It’s a package from 1993 and seems that it did lots of non trivial work,
> however there’s no license notice and I don’t know if it’s possible to pick up the development.

Doesn't it say:

        ;; This code is released into the public domain without any express or implied
        ;; warranty.  The author accepts no responsibility for any consequences
        ;; arising from its use.

        ;; This code may be distributed and modified in any way; however, please
        ;; retain notice of original authorship in this and any derivative work.

It might not suffice in court, but the author implies that any use is
ok.

> Do you have any idea? Do you find this package anywhere else with some license or 
> anyone know the author?

I could only find copies of the same file on some other sites, but
nothing different. Maybe try contacting the author, on the chance that
the email address is still valid.

> Best,
> Qiantan
>

-- 
	Philip Kaludercic

Re: Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

[Qiantan Hong]

> Doesn't it say:
> 
>        ;; This code is released into the public domain without any express or implied
>        ;; warranty.  The author accepts no responsibility for any consequences
>        ;; arising from its use.
> 
>        ;; This code may be distributed and modified in any way; however, please
>        ;; retain notice of original authorship in this and any derivative work.
> 
> It might not suffice in court, but the author implies that any use is
> ok.

Yes, but I’m not sure about the copyright assignment thing when using in GNU project.
If we cannot get to contact the author, does that prevent it from entering GNU code?

Re: Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

[Philip Kaludercic]

Qiantan Hong <qhong@mit.edu> writes:

>> Doesn't it say:
>> 
>>        ;; This code is released into the public domain without any express or implied
>>        ;; warranty.  The author accepts no responsibility for any consequences
>>        ;; arising from its use.
>> 
>>        ;; This code may be distributed and modified in any way; however, please
>>        ;; retain notice of original authorship in this and any derivative work.
>> 
>> It might not suffice in court, but the author implies that any use is
>> ok.
>
> Yes, but I’m not sure about the copyright assignment thing when using in GNU project.
> If we cannot get to contact the author, does that prevent it from entering GNU code?

I don't know enough about licenses to say so. What i know is that there
already is public domain code in Emacs (just grep for "public domain"),
so it might not be impossible. That being said, maybe the policy has
changed since these files were added.

-- 
	Philip Kaludercic

Re: Reviving tablature-mode.el -- license issue?

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > If we cannot get to contact the author, does that prevent it from entering GNU code?

If this is for GNU Emacs, maybe it can go in NonGNU ELPA.
That doesn't require that the FSF have the copyright.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)