Re: Licenses [excluding ports to WinDOS]
> On Jul 5, Larry Gilbert wrote
>
> > My two bits' worth. Personally, I appreciate his support of free
> > software, and even more his disdain for proprietary operating systems. :-)
> > But he makes a pretty major exception to the GPL there. So I'd consider
> > it a non-free package.
On Sat, 5 Jul 1997, Riku Voipio wrote:
> Actually, it would go to contrib?
Here was my thinking (and I'll confess, I'm new here). Refer to
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-policy/ch-pkgcopyright.html as
necessary.
The definitions for "non-free" generally seem to imply a package that can
be redistributed in source code form for no charge, but have more strings
attached than the normal Debian notion of "freeware". The definitions for
"contrib" imply an even more restrictive license, such as shareware or
crippleware, a total ban on source code distribution, etc.
The license in question effectively says it's the same as GPL, except that
it must be considered null and void for any Microsoft OS. So it restricts
where it can be compiled and run, but in every other sense it's freeware.
That's why I thought "non-free" would be the place.
The last criterion under the "contrib" section mentions packages "which
fail to meet some other policy requirements." Thus, Riku, I do see your
case for putting it in contrib instead.
But I think all this brings up an ambiguity in the policy manual that
needs to be better spelled out. Maybe the second point under "The
non-free distribution" could be amended to read "[packages] where
distribution or usage is restricted according to the medium, operating
system, or type of computer used, . . . ."
This may also need to be stated more clearly in the anti-discrimination
clauses of the "social contract." I think the intent is there in #6, "No
Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor," and #8, "License Must Not Be
Specific to Debian," but it never comes right out and says that people
must be free to use the software on any other platform. From Christian
Schwarz's earlier message, it sounds like this is what was intended.
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