On Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 12:02:23AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> I'm happy to cooperate in a constructive process. But it requires
> you, the one interested in drafting proposals, to try and include the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> concerns and not try and slough them off.
That's the way Debian works. The work gets done by those willing to do
it. If you want to see some work done to proceduralize the
grandfathering of DFSG-unfree packages in main, roll up your sleeves.
> Perhaps you were unaware of the fact that there have been invariant
> sections for years--indeed, since before Linux existed, let alone
> Debian. But the rest of the world was not necessarily as ignorant,
> and this is not some brand new "concrete problem"; it's a perfectly
> old, well-tried, case.
Feel free to direct my attention to the messages of the drafters of the
DFSG tackling this issue head-on, years ago.
I do not regard accident as precedent.
> If one wants to know how to interpret the DFSG in a particular case,
> the best test, in general, is precedent. And you aren't going to find
> much stronger precedent than the Emacs manual, in my opinion.
I do not regard accident as precedent.
> There simply HAS BEEN NO PROBLEM before. The GFDL is new, but the
> principles involved are NOT; they are WELL-TRAVELED GROUND, and it is
> *you* who are the prime force behind trying to shake things up as much
> as possible.
You'd have a stronger argument if the GNU Manuals reverted to (or still
had) the licenses they bore when the DFSG was adopted. In fact, I find
the traditional GNU documentation license, which I quoted in the impact
section of my Final Draft, quite satisfactory, and I don't think there's
anyone who could convincingly argue that that license cannot be applied
in a DFSG-incompatible way without chaging its text or adding riders
(which is true of all DFSG-free licenses).
At any rate, I'm collecting seconds despite your apoplexy.
--
G. Branden Robinson |
Debian GNU/Linux | kernel panic -- causal failure
branden@debian.org | universe will now reboot
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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