Just Cc-ing Christian Perrier (l10n coordinator, I believe) as he's
likely to be interested in the matter. Sadly, I don't have much to
contribute to the question.
Quoting Pierre Slamich (2013-04-09 11:10:29)
> Hi,
> I'm Pierre, one of the Ubuntu French translations coordinators.
>
> We're trying to contribute back translations of the DDTP (package descriptions)
> made by the ubuntu French Translator using a process to translate the DDTP on a
> large scale (using Google machine suggestions that are then edited and
> validated manually by our reviewers).
>
> We'd like to contribute back to Debian as suggestions but it raises legal
> questions.
>
>
> I missed that point from the original mail, but it is likely that we
> have to think twice before integrating translations originating from a
> non-free resource.
> Thanks to David who raised that point on IRC.
>
>
> There's an unfinished thread from last year about this on debian-legal :
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2012/03/msg00033.html
> I'm not a lawyer by any means, but I'd like to point out that in our specific
> case, if we had to translate those strings without any machine intervention,
> given the technical nature of the strings and their size, and given that we've
> made corrections whenever the machine was wrong, we wouldn't (and couldn't)
> translate it much differently.
>
> What I'd need is an answer on whether we can go ahead or not.
>
> sincerely,
> Pierre
> pierre.slamich@gmail.com