Debian bug report logs - #1505
setterm is missing

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From magenta.com!moth Fri Sep 29 15:17:53 1995
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Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:12:54 -0400
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From: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
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To: bruce@Pixar.com, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
In-Reply-To: <m0syj4X-000EyVC@mongo.pixar.com> (message from Bruce Perens on Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:18:05 -0700)
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing

For what it's worth:

I've been pretty strung out lately (illness, deadlines, lack of
sleep).  Please take anything I mailed out yesterday with at least a
grain of salt.  [Not that you shouldn't in any event, but especially
for Sep 28 95].

Sorry about that.

-- 
Raul

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From pixar.com!bruce Fri Sep 29 10:18:23 1995
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To: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens), debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:35 PDT."
             <199509291500.QAA24725@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl> 
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:18:05 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>

Hm. There seems to be some confusion about who the author is.

Unfortunately, we can't be _too_ careful about copyrights. For the
CD-ROM distributiors, there is a significant risk of getting sued (and
losing the lawsuit) if we haven't verified that we have the right to
distribute these programs. The publicity would not be pretty. As a
fledgeling CD-ROM distributor myself, I have an incentive to get this
stuff right. I can't presently afford to get sued.

As to the program existing in Slackware, etc., for countless distributions,
perhaps they got individual permission from the author, or perhaps they
overlooked the problem or they don't care. We choose to operate differently.

I do know that there are some very sloppy CD-ROM manufacturers out there.
I'm not saying who they are. They are definitely selling things that they
have no legal right to sell.

	Thanks

	Bruce

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From i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl!marekm Fri Sep 29 08:00:56 1995
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From: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Message-Id: <199509291500.QAA24725@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing
To: bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:35 +0100 (MET)
Cc: debian-bugs@Pixar.com
In-Reply-To: <m0syPXf-000Gf3C@mongo.pixar.com> from "Bruce Perens" at Sep 28, 95 01:26:51 pm
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Bruce Perens:
> I think there was a copyright problem with "setterm" that caused us to
> remove it from the distribution a long time ago. If I recall correctly,
> it didn't allow distribution for a fee, which is of course essential to
> our CD-ROM redistributors.

Hmm, setterm is distributed on countless Slackware CD-ROMs at least...
Aren't we too paranoid about copyrights?

Now that I have read the source, it says that the "conditions of use,
modification and redistribution are contained in the file COPYRIGHT that
forms part of this distribution" but I can't find this file anywhere.

Has anyone tried to contact the author (Gordon Irlam gordoni@cs.ua.oz.au)
about this?  From a quick test using EXPN it seems that his e-mail address
is probably still valid even though setterm was written in 1990...

Marek

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From magenta.com!moth Thu Sep 28 15:21:21 1995
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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 18:16:19 -0400
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From: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
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To: cdr@sme.siemens.com, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com, marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl
In-Reply-To: <9509282119.AA07191@cons.mountain> (message from CD Rasmussen on Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 -0400)
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing

Costa D Rasmussen:
   I wish we had setterm.  I noticed it was missing and thought I must
   be ignorant about how to do without it.

   What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

setterm was written by Ted Ts'o.  He thought it was such a trivial
program that it didn't need a copyright.

As of today, he knows that the lack of a copyright is a distribution
problem.  I don't know for sure, but I think he plans on releasing it
with a redistributable copyright.

-- 
Raul

Message received at debian-bugs:

From pixar.com!bruce Thu Sep 28 14:29:00 1995
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To: cdr@sme.siemens.com
Cc: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>, debian-bugs@Pixar.com,
        Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 PDT."
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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:28:08 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>


cdr@sme.siemens.com said:
> What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

First, research the current copyright status and confirm it with the author.
Then, if you have to, lobby the author. Only if that fails, write something
better and GPL it.

	Bruce

--
-- Attention Radio Amateurs: For information on "Linux for Hams",
-- read the WWW page http://www.hams.com/LinuxForHams, 
-- or e-mail the word "help" to info@hams.com

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From sme.siemens.com!cdr Thu Sep 28 14:20:04 1995
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To: Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com>, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Cc: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Reply-To: cdr@sme.siemens.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 13:26:51 PDT."
             <m0syPXf-000Gf3C@mongo.pixar.com> 
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 -0400
From: CD Rasmussen <cdr@sme.siemens.com>

I wish we had setterm.  I noticed it was missing and thought I must be
ignorant about how to do without it.

What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

Costa

Message received at debian-bugs:

From pixar.com!bruce Thu Sep 28 13:33:24 1995
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To: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>,
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Cc: bruce@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 20:37:50 PDT."
             <199509281937.UAA20951@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl> 
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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 13:26:51 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>

I think there was a copyright problem with "setterm" that caused us to
remove it from the distribution a long time ago. If I recall correctly,
it didn't allow distribution for a fee, which is of course essential to
our CD-ROM redistributors.

Several of the programs in util-linux had ambiguous or pernicious copyright
status at that time.

	Thanks

	Bruce

marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl said:
> Package: miscutils

> I can't find the setterm program (distributed as part of util-linux) 
> anywhere in the distribution (the output from "grep setterm Contents" 
> is empty, and this program is not on my freshly installed, fairly 
> complete Debian system at home).

> It is not currently part of any package, but I think it might be part 
> of the "miscutils" package (or some other package - the decision is 
> not up to me).  This is the program used to set various terminal 
> attributes, including some specific to Linux console, like screen 
> blanking timeout. Not an essential package, but a sometimes useful 
> one.

> If there a program which is part of the distribution and does the 
> same thing but has a different name, please ignore this report (I am 
> new to Debian - previously using Slackware for over a year now, but 
> it has become too messy and difficult to upgrade, so I installed 
> Debian just for fun after I got a new hard drive).

> Marek

> 

--
-- Attention Radio Amateurs: For information on "Linux for Hams",
-- read the WWW page http://www.hams.com/LinuxForHams, 
-- or e-mail the word "help" to info@hams.com

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From i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl!marekm Thu Sep 28 12:38:09 1995
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From: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Message-Id: <199509281937.UAA20951@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: setterm is missing
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 20:37:50 +0100 (MET)
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Package: miscutils

I can't find the setterm program (distributed as part of util-linux)
anywhere in the distribution (the output from "grep setterm Contents"
is empty, and this program is not on my freshly installed, fairly
complete Debian system at home).

It is not currently part of any package, but I think it might be part
of the "miscutils" package (or some other package - the decision is not
up to me).  This is the program used to set various terminal attributes,
including some specific to Linux console, like screen blanking timeout.
Not an essential package, but a sometimes useful one.

If there a program which is part of the distribution and does the same
thing but has a different name, please ignore this report (I am new to
Debian - previously using Slackware for over a year now, but it has
become too messy and difficult to upgrade, so I installed Debian just
for fun after I got a new hard drive).

Marek