Re: inappropriate racist and other offensive material
>>>>> "MS" == Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> writes:
Evan> This raises an interesting point: is there a difference
Evan> between cuss words -- fuck, shit, damn, weenie -- and
Evan> language that attacks or insults a person or group of
Evan> people? I would say yes.
MS> So, some offensive speech does not offend you, so obviously it
MS> should be treated differently?
I didn't say that it didn't offend me, nor did I say they should be
treated differently. I just said that I think there's a difference
between racial insults and potty language.
MS> Doth not the ugly head of subjectivity rear itself over the
MS> issue, as forewarned?
Absolutely! Totally and completely. I think that this is a subjective
issue in the utmost. It's a subjective decision for each user what
packages to install and/or use. It's a subjective decision for the
maintainer what changes to make to a package and what software to
package at all.
Not to mention that it's a subjective decision by this organization
whether or not to deliver -- with the Debian logo prominently
displayed -- an operating system featuring the Bible, anarchist texts,
and software written by dumb kids who think racist jokes are a laff
riot.
It seems to me that our group has kind of gelled around the idea that
no software or content is sufficiently controversial that we'd pull it
from Debian. That seems like a pretty amazing view -- that there is an
essential Right To Publish for anyone involved in this project.
This is different from having any freedom of expression, mind
you. What we're talking about here is a right to put some information
or software out, and have it published all over the world with the
Debian name on it.
I'm not saying I disagree with this idea, but I can't really think of
too many other software development or publishing organizations or any
other groups where this is the case. It's pretty amazing, when you get
down to it. And I think it's pretty cool how people here are so
devoted to the structure of the organization, and the Free nature of
the product(s) we put out.
MS> Who gets to decide where these distinctions are drawn?
Everybody, all the time, every single day.
~ESP
--
Evan Prodromou
evan@debian.org
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