On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 12:48:55PM -0400, Jim Penny wrote: > On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:38:12 -0500 > Steve Langasek <vorlon@netexpress.net> wrote: > > > On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 05:56:32PM +0200, Emile van Bergen wrote: > > > > > > I object to this ITP. Not very strongly, but I still object. > > > > > I think it's a wonderful idea to have a decss package in Debian. If > > > Debian cannot distribute the decss that allows Debian users to view > > > DVD movies (yet), then distributing this one is a good alternative, > > > I'd say. > > > > You're clearly quite mad. Regardless of whether this script is > > trivial to implement, it's not something anyone should be encouraged > > to actually*use*. CSS is the *best* feature of the HTML4 standard. > > Why would anyone in their right mind wish to strip nearly all the > > logical structure markup out of a document? > > Uhh, it is to tweak the international copyright cartel, and the RIAA in > particular. They have written "cease and desist" letters to anyone who > has a file names deCSS on their system. This is an attempt to make such > a filename so common that these letters are pointless, and possibly > evidence of illegal activity. It strikes me that even if Debian (or a Developer) wished to encourage such a political statement, the vastly more efficient method would be to include it in some other package to which it might have relevance (for example, something that helped to generate CSS style information, or analyzed it, or whatever). Just drop it into /usr/share/doc as an example program (README.decss or somesuch), or as a helper app somewhere (though I'd be careful of /usr/bin, frankly). No new package, the (arguably useful) script goes into a place where it is most likely to be seen by those to whom it actually *is* useful, and everyone else doesn't have to try to figure out whether it's reasonable as a standalone package, or is just a 'joke', or what. (No, this isn't intended as "how to get around doing an ITP", but rather, as an alternative which assumes you can convince someone that the script is, in fact, useful enough to put into an existing package to which it might be applicable.) -- Joel Baker <fenton@debian.org>
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