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Re: LPPL and non-discrimination



Henning Makholm wrote:
> Scripsit Jonathan Fine <jfine@activetex.org>
>
>>Now to the problem.  Debian guideline 5 states "The
>>license must not discriminate against any person or
>>group of persons."
>>
>>The proposed LaTeX license defines the Current Maintainer.
>>The license grants these person(s) privileges that are
>>not granted to other licensees.

Some clarification.  Every purchase is also a sale.  Every
more than is also a less than.  Every discrimination
in favour of is also a discrimination against.


> We have a clear tradition on d-l that the non-discrimination guidline
> only means that there must be some free terms that apply to everyone.
> It is not a problem of specific groups receive *more* freedom than the
> norm, as long as everyone has the freedoms described by the DFSG.

I understand this to mean: provided that for the least privileged
licensees the other guidelines are met, guideline 5 does not apply.


> It would be absurd to consider one license less free than another solely
> because it gives more rights to a specific group.

In my opinion, this is precisely what guideline 5 says.  More exactly,
it says that a license is not free if it grants *less* rights to a
person or group of persons.  And every *more* than is also a *less*
than.


Jonathan Fine
Cambridge, UK








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