On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 01:32:13PM -0800, Walter Landry wrote: > Steve Langasek <vorlon@netexpress.net> wrote: > > The essence of your argument seems to be that, rather than doing the > > best we can to promote and spread Free Software under the circumstances, > > we have a moral imperative via the DFSG to stick our collective head in > > the sand whenever our philosophy comes into conflict with the edicts of > > governments. I don't buy that. > The social contract, which is what I think you meant, is not a cut and > dry document. I agree many restrictions could be added to how we > distribute software, and it could still be justified under the "Our > Priorities are Our Users and Free Software" clause. The reverse IP > lookups and no mirrors in the T7 probably falls under this. I've > never said otherwise, although I would like people to recognize those > sacrifices. I was specifically referring to points 5 and 6 of the DFSG, which reject licenses that discriminate against persons or groups, and licenses that discriminate against fields of endeavor. > However, it seems I'm currently enmeshed in a battle to convince > people that there is a use restriction. In that case, a number of the > pieces of software that Debian distributes do not allow additional > restrictions. Regardless of our philosophy. Some time ago, RedHat began implementing support for a premium access ftp site. Customers who had paid for such-and-such a support agreement were guaranteed to be able to ftp in to ftp.redhat.com and grab the binaries/sources they were looking for. Those who had NOT paid for premium access either had to wait their turn (anonymous logins are limited and those over the limit are turned away) or use a mirror. Debian is implementing crypto-in-main. As a result of this, users downloading from some US Debian mirrors (remember, implementing this notice is optional and at the discretion of the mirror operator) are asked to warrant that they're not under the control of the government of, or located in, a T7 nation; and that they're not going to use figlet and related tools of mass-destruction in the design, development, stockpiling or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or missiles. Those who are not willing to so warrant... have to use a mirror located outside of the United States. These two situations seem quite analogous to me. Does placing either condition (monetary compensation, or warranting that they're not planning to destroy the Earth) on access to particular mirror sites violate the licenses of software contained in Debian's main archive? If so, what licenses? Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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