Re: Should we really translate legal notices?

[Ihar Hrachyshka <ihar hrachyshka gmail com>]

Hi all!

I have a technical question: is it possible to make all GNOME modules to
use uniform legal notice message strings located somewhere in common
library (gtk? libgnome?)

I mean those messages found in About dialog. They are quite pretty the
same (just subtitute program name with %s) and it will reduce module
catalogs a little. It will also give us a single way to update all these
messages at once. F.e. we had situation in the past when FSF address was
changed, and we needed every module maintainer to update the info in his
own space rather than update it in single common place.

Is there a chance to see it sometime in the future?

On Tue, 2010-05-18 at 11:59 +0200, Kenneth Nielsen wrote:
> Hallo All
> 
> In the Danish team we have translated legal notices under the
> assumption that if it came to legal disputes the legal system would
> automatically default to the original text. If that is not the case,
> then we need another solution.
> 
> My opinion on the matter is this:
> 
> I think these legal texts should be translated, because the licenses
> are so incredibly important for the nature of free software I think
> non-english speaking people should be able to read them. I think
> someone already mentioned in the other thread, that FSF already has a
> little piece of text that we should add to the legal text that
> explains that translations are for informative purposes only and that
> in legal matters only the original text apply.
> 
> So in my mind we should simply add that extra bit of text in all the
> appropriate strings (off course no more than once per application)*
> and that would be it. If some localization teams don't want to
> translate them, they are free to, and that ones that want to can do it
> right.
> 
> Concerning Johannes comment about the availability of the original
> text to the users, I will remind you that the GPL legals notices
> already have information that explains to you how you can get your
> hands on the original text.:
> 
> "You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with "
> "this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple "
> "Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA."
> 
> So if you really NEED to get the original text, then you should be
> able to find it in the source package, and if that is not the case
> simply send a letter to the FSF (it is off course way easier to look
> up on the internet, but the point is that if you really NEED it, i.e.
> because you are considering suing someone, you should be able to find
> it.)
> 
> Regards Kenneth Nielsen
> 
> * On a more technical note: That will automatically make the strings
> fuzzy and hence alleviate the situation of possible doing something
> wrong immediately. After asking module maintainers to do this on their
> own, we should quite easily be able to make a script that can locate
> modules where this has not been updated and clean up the remaining
> strings.
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