Desert Island Test [Re: DRAFT: debian-legal summary of the QPL]
On Mon, 12 Jul 2004, Raul Miller wrote:
> the above paragraphs have little relevance to anyone in debian. The
> technical term for this condition is "silly".
This particular test is basically expressing the idea that individuals
shouldn't be compelled to distribute changes to individuals beyond the
individuals who have received the modifications to the code.
Again, the desert island merely provides a convenient metaphor for
considering the practical restrictions that such clauses place upon
users of free software, and, as such, specifically relates this test
to the DFSG.
While the imagery of a computer programmer sitting on a lonely desert
isle hacking away with their solar powered computer, drinking
coconuts, and recieving messages in bottles might be silly, the rights
that such a gedanken is protecting are anything but.
Don Armstrong
--
I don't care how poor and inefficient a little country is; they like
to run their own business. I know men that would make my wife a
better husband than I am; but, darn it, I'm not going to give her to
'em.
-- The Best of Will Rogers
http://www.donarmstrong.com
http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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