Re: Social Contract GR's Affect on sarge
Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> writes:
> Recently, there were some calls for such definitions, and lack of
> clear definitions was often put forward as an argument to stamp some
> practices as impractical. For example, treating Data and Programs
> differently.
We decided clearly that data and programs were both subject to the
DFSG. We did not decide that every term in the DFSG has a single
rigid interpretation.
> I don't think that clear rules are necessary (mainly because our
> decisions are political and of no legal relevance), and mere
> guidelines are sufficient. However, the current mess makes me wonder
> if this is the correct approach.
I don't see a mess. Ted Ts'o tried to apply an inappropriate standard
to the question of fonts, and got an absurd result. I think it was
just a simple mistake. Ted's a really smart guy, and I think he just
automatically substituted the GPL's definition of "source code",
without realizing or even noticing that the DFSG does not have that
definition.
Once one realizes that, the problem evaporates (and with it, the
"current mess").
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