On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 12:55:37AM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote:
> As opposed to those of who wouldn't mind ditching non-free and at the same
> time just so happen to not have any non-free packages installed? :>
Well, that doesn't describe me (not on my main i386 machine, at least):
Non-free packages installed on apocalypse
gimp-nonfree GIF and TIFF support for the GNU Image Manipulation Pr
libmagick4g-lzw Image manipulation library (non-free version).
pgp-us Public key encryption system (US version)
xmame Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
xmame-x X binaries for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
5 non-free packages, 0.3% of 1478 installed packages.
None of the above are essential to me. I haven't even used any of them
in years now, probably. The only thing keeping them on my box is
inertia.
The first two are an odd case of DFSG-free but patent-encumbered
software. IMO we should at some point tackle the case of what do about
software that is licensed DFSG-freely by the author but encumbered by a
third party, such as a patent holder or a speech-suppressing government.
Examples include:
* the LZW patent
* just about anything that has anything to with anything in the US, as
long as a media company gets a bad attitude about it (the DMCA)
* alphabetized lists of words in the European Union (see debian-legal)
* certain texts and images in the European Union that qualify as "hate
speech" (like Doom WAD files that have swastikas in the level maps)
> Surely we can all understand that people's needs differ, and that it is
> normal for people want to do something that benefits them, and don't want to
> do something that harms them?
We can understand it, but we should also take in consideration the
breadth of people's thought.
--
G. Branden Robinson | The best place to hide something is
Debian GNU/Linux | in documentation.
branden@debian.org | -- Ethan Benson
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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