Re: inappropriate racist and other offensive material
Scott Dier <dieman@ringworld.org> wrote:
> * Lex Spoon <lex@debian.org> [020315 21:50]:
> > any more than you'd change the title of the program, or remove a level
> > you didn't like, or change the control-keys to be more emacsy.
>
> Hell, I had to remove vimrc because people used to the 'default vim
> settings' really hated how /etc/vimrc was all wrong.
>
> Is this considered changing the intent of the progammers? Or is this
> considered a service by the maintainer to enhance the usefulness of the
> packages?
>
This is a close call, but it seems pretty reasonable. I'm not sure if I
would have done it, anyway, but I can see where you are coming from.
Anyway, just because the line is fuzzy, doesn't mean we should ignore
it. Many people are saying we *should* ignore this issue, and that
bothers me. diff.gz is not a license to make all the changes you've
always wanted in the upstream program.
Christian Kurz <shorty@debian.org> wrote:
> > First, should we *not* package offensive programs? That is, if you
> > decide in your subjective opinion that a program is offensive, are you
> > on your honor as a Debian developer not to package it? I would rather
> > it is allowed, actually, but I could live it either way.
>
> That's a decision that the prospective maintainer of the packages has to
> make and no one else. He needs to decide if he wants to package the way
> that upstream provides it, convince upstream to remove some offensive
> parts, remove them only in the Debian package or don't package it at
> all. This is not a decision that can be made on a list like debian-devel
> and if you really want a solution that effect all developers, then you
> should start a Grand Resolution and have a vote where all developers can
> participate.
Christian, many people are arguing that you should absolutely not
package an offensive program. I disagree with this, and you seem to, as
well: it's up to the packager. It's perfectly fine to package the
"Whitey Insult Generator" if you have the stomache for it.
On the other hand, I don't think you should be able to cut text just
because it violates some rule or another. You should need a stronger
reason. Changing text is a signicant change to a program. Doing so in
a diff.gz file is cowardly. Overall, diff.gz is a necessary evil, and
should be minimized, to getting the package functioning properly on a
Debian system.
At the very least, I'd like there to always be *one* true version of a
package available, even if you do decide to hack a specialized version
for Debian.
-Lex
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