Re: Leadership, effects on Debian and open source community
> ones in the license agreement. A "do anything you want with this"
> license is certainly DFSG-free, but if the software is the RSAREF library
> and you can't license the patent from RSA commercially without a fee,
> then the software isn't _really_ free.
Woah, woah. We've got to be careful to maintain the distinction here
between (free == $0) and (free == liberated). The code can be liberated
(;cough "Open") even if it's illegal to use it (which it would be if you
didn't pay the fee). RSAREF fails the current DFSG under the "no
restrictions on fields of endevour" bit -- it's free ($0) unless your use
is commercial.
I'm not clear what we should do about cases such as these. It's ludicrous
to expect that anything patented is going to be completely free -- the
patent system was set up mostly to allow the patent owner to collect
money, so anyone who's taken the trouble to file for the patent is
obviously going to be looking for cash.
> And so on that note, here's my advice: start with the DFSG1 and amend it
> slightly to clean up the points we missed. We don't need a whole new
> document, just some changes.
Righto.
Will
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