Re: Having a non-free and a non-cd branch?
On Sun, 28 Jun 1998, Kevin Atkinson wrote:
> Raul Miller wrote:
> >
> > Kevin Atkinson <kevina@clark.net> wrote:
> > > Sorry, I didn't mean to say non-GPL. Want I mean to say is that I
> > > think companies should be rewarded for distributing there programs
> > > freely even if they are not complete free by debian's standard.
> >
> > You want us to reward companies by violating their licenses?
> >
> > Sorry, but you are very wrong -- this is not a good way to be nice to a
> > company.
> >
>
> In what way would including it on the cd violate the license? If you
> mean that you modified the archive well you already did that when you
> packaged it.
I believe he is refering to the fact that the software you speak of is
licensed in a distribution restrictive fashion. These companies have used
this legal restriction on your freedoms to demand money without delivering
product. They are not likely to look kindly on you assertion that their
sofware is "almost" free, and you will find yourself before a judge
explaining why you thought it was ok to steal this corporate product.
>
> Now it does violate the Debian Social Contract. Thus it will never
> happen. However just putting it on a CD would not violate the license.
>
Ignorance is no excuse under the law. Yes, you would violate the license.
> > I think we've made the right choice.
>
> And I don't agree however it is clear that I don't have the same
> belifies that the majority of the Debian develpment has. It is really a
> moral issue now.
At its roots it always was a moral issue. But it is an issue with Legal
consequences as well, which for many of us makes it the pragmatically
correct thing to do.
We support such software as best we can, by making .deb packages when
we are allowed and otherwise making the underlying system responsive to
the needs of these programs as well as the free stuff. (this comes under
the heading of quality from my POV)
So, while the foundations of this "rigid" position on freeness comes from
a moral "high ground", there are practical considerations as well which
reinforce our moral position as not only being just, but also very
usefull.
I hold up as proof:
0.93-R6 about 100 packages
1.1 more
1.2 more
1.3 almost 1000 package (around 976 in main)
2.0 will be over 1500 packages.
During this same period of time, contrib and non-free have not grown more
than 2 or 3 times in size.
Look at any other distribution, semi free like RedHat, strong components
of Proprietary software in Caldera, all the way up to M$ software, and
none of those products has increased it features base the way that a
"totally free" distribution like Debian has been able to do.
I attribute all of our success to the underlying philosophy expressed in
the DFSG, the Debian Manifesto, and the GNU Manifesto (each of which
predate the DFSG), and the fact that there are enough people who
understand what this means to impliment it.
Waiting is,
Dwarf
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