License confusion (was: Re: odd license grant in gcc(1) manpage)

[Samuel Bronson <naesten at gmail dot com>]

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Joseph S. Myers
<joseph@codesourcery.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Feb 2012, Samuel Bronson wrote:
>
>> ... Notice how the one in invoke.texi has an additional invariant
>> section? What's up with this?
>
> It looks like Ralf's 2008-07-30 commit (r138293) omitted to change
> invoke.texi.

That would certainly explain that.

I ran into a couple of other oddities in trying to prepare a DEP5
debian/copyright Â<http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep5> file for
gcc-X.Y-doc-non-dfsg (which you can see at
<https://github.com/SamB/debian-gcc-doc/blob/debian/4.6/debian/copyright>).
For some reason, I reported on bugzilla instead of asking about them.
Anyone have any light to shed on those?

Bug 52204 <http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52204>:
libiberty/at-file.texi has no copyright or license statement whatsoever

Here is the entirety of the file:

---->8----
@c This file is designed to be included in manuals that use
@c expandargv.

@item @@@var{file}
Read command-line options from @var{file}.  The options read are
inserted in place of the original @@@var{file} option.  If @var{file}
does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated
literally, and not removed.

Options in @var{file} are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace
character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
option in either single or double quotes.  Any character (including a
backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included
with a backslash.  The @var{file} may itself contain additional
@@@var{file} options; any such options will be processed recursively.
---->8----

And all relevant ChangeLog entries:

2005-10-07  Mark Mitchell  <mark@codesourcery.com>

        * at-file.texi: Fix typo.

2005-10-03  Mark Mitchell  <mark@codesourcery.com>

        * at-file.texi: New file.


Bug 52207 <http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52207>
License on gcc/doc/include/gcc-common.texi screws up the licenses of
many other documents.

gcc/doc/include/gcc-common.texi says:

@c Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
@c 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c This is part of the GCC manual.
@c For copying conditions, see the file gcc.texi.

gcc/doc/gcc.texi says:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being ``Funding Free Software'', the Front-Cover
Texts being (a) (see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b)
(see below).  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
``GNU Free Documentation License''.

(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

     A GNU Manual

(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

     You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
     software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
     funds for GNU development.

But there are a lot of other documents that include this file, most of which do
not include the "Funding Free Software" section (and have "@copying" blocks
different from the above):

find . -type f -print0 | "xargs" -0 -e grep -nH -e '@include.*gcc-common'
./gcc/ada/gnat-style.texi:30:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/ada/gnat_rm.texi:37:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/ada/gnat_ugn.texi:124:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/doc/cpp.texi:9:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/doc/gcc.texi:25:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/doc/cppinternals.texi:5:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/doc/gccint.texi:11:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/doc/install.texi:10:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/fortran/gfc-internals.texi:6:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/fortran/gfortran.texi:6:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/java/gcj.texi:12:@include gcc-common.texi
./gcc/go/gccgo.texi:12:@include gcc-common.texi

find . -type f -print0 | "xargs" -0 -e grep -nH -e '@include.*funding'
./gcc/doc/gcc.texi:173:@include funding.texi
./gcc/doc/gccint.texi:164:@include funding.texi
./gcc/fortran/gfortran.texi:3033:@include funding.texi

and which it is therefore probably illegal for anyone but the FSF to distribute
in built form.