On Sat, 24 Jan 2004, Daniel Quinlan wrote: > However, while debian-legal is a useful forum for discussing the > merits of licenses and possible incompatibilities, an outside group > like Apache doesn't seem to be able to get a definitive opinion > about licenses under development. In this particular example, a few members of debian-legal were actively involved in the discussions on the license list. Where clauses existed that were likely to be considered as not DFSG free, they were pointed out, and communicated. Because the license was in flux, and was revised multiple times, there wasn't a place for a definitive statement from Debian. You'll note as well that there hasn't been a definitive statement (regarding GPL compatibility) on the license from the FSF either. > Specifically, I suggest: > > 1. a single place where review requests should be sent That's generally debian-legal. > 2. review requests are posted to debian-legal for general discussion > > 3. an official entity, either a committee or a trusted individual who is > able to gauge consensus sufficiently effectively assembles > discussion, drafts a response which can be posted here for review > prior to returning it > > 4. response is returned within 30 days of submission Generally the drafters of the license need to participate in the discussion. For most licenses it's pretty clear which clauses are not DFSG free. In some cases, there are clauses which are controversial with regards to their freedom. For these licenses, once the controversial clauses have been identified, the drafters can either fix them, or gamble that ftp-master or the Debian developers via GR won't see a problem with the license. Because -legal itself acts primarily in an advisory capability to Debian rather than as an official mouthpiece of Debian, it cannot make a definitive statement. However, with few exceptions, if debian-legal identifies problems with a specific license, the problems exist. Don Armstrong -- Three little words. (In decending order of importance.) I love you -- hugh macleod http://www.gapingvoid.com/graphics/batch35.php http://www.donarmstrong.com http://www.anylevel.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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