DFSG: Do we really need a rewrite? or Just clarifications? (was Re: DFSG2: The patch exception)
Hi,
>>"Ian" == Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
Ian> Several people have complained that some important existing
Ian> software (notably TeX) has a patch requirement. How about if we
Ian> have a special grandfather exception for this ?
Umm, no. I would rather go with the deprecated/discouraged
commentary on patch cluses, and be consistent with that, rather than
breaking the guidelines with grandfather clauses just because some
people peole happened to like the software in question. That goes
against the stated goal of setting forth a clear set of guidelines.
I woulds also like to state for the recoord that I find the
DFSG far easier to read than the current draft (I dislike legalese),
and that makes for more, rather than less, confusion about
licences.
There are a number of people, myself included, who feel queasy
about such a drastic rewrite of the DFSG. The reasons cited for the
rewrite have been that it is too hard to determine whether is licence
is in compliance or no, and that the DFSG is quite vague in parts,
and needs clarification.
If we needs must clarify further, I would prefer leaving the
*GUIDELINES* as they are (the DFSG), and calling the new document
DFSC (the debian free software criterion), and state in the social
contract that the DFSG are clarified by a working document, the DFSC,
and the DFSC is meant to be a rules based implementation of the
spirit of the DFSG, and mention that Debian actually follows the
DFSC when determining whether to include packages in Debian.
Thsi would allow us to tweak the DFSC, and try to
I would rather not have to go through the process of
explaining our rewrite of what is increasing a mainstream, defining
document for free software.
manoj
--
Without coffee he could not work, or at least he could not have
worked in the way he did. In addition to paper and pens, he took
with him everywhere as an indispensable article of equipment the
coffee machine, which was no less important to him than his table or
his white robe. Stefan Zweigs, Biography of Balzac
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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