Re: DFSG violations in Lenny: new proposal
On Mon, Nov 10 2008, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> So far as I can see, the only significant difference between #5 and #2
> (or #3) is the requirement that upstream distributes "under a license
> that complies with the DFSG".
Yes. Without that clause, one can say we could ship something
like nvidia drivers in main -- since we are legally allowed to do so,
even though the license might be very non-free otherwise. That opens a
hole the size of a bus to let non-free code into Debian. That earned it
the "overrides the SC" label.
> But it is surely irrelevant whether the licence text says we can
> modify the source when the copyright holder is deliberately
> withholding the source. (Further, in some cases the licence is GPLv2
> which requires us to redistribute the source we don't have - though
> thankfully there are only 1 or 2 such cases left.)
How do you know the author is withholding the source? Yes, I
suspect they are, and I doubt that the blobs are the preferred form of
modification, but these are judgement calls, not proof. I mean, I have
written programs in hex in my time; the hex blob _was_ the source
code. One of these programs was even for a radio transmitter on a
breadboard.
All we are doing is is not throwing out code we suspect, but do
not know for a certainty, might violate the license it is distributed
under. Said license being DFSG free, though.
Yes, I feel slightly dirty doing so. Which is why I do not think
it fair for such decisions to fall to only some of us -- the whole
project should stand behind the decision to not confront potential GPL
violations in the kernel in order to release.
Post release, I would like to have kernel images based on your
work be the basis of the official kernel images, and would be willing
to put in the work required to make it so.
manoj
--
"No, no, I don't mind being called the smartest man in the world. I
just wish it wasn't this one." -- Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, WATCHMEN
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
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