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Re: Intent to mass-file bugs: FDL/incorrect copyright files



On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 02:39:17PM -0800, Brian Nelson wrote:
> Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net> writes:

> > Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> writes:

> >> I'm saying debian-legal is irrelevant to this bug mass filing.  Brian
> >> proposed to submit these bugs on the grounds that there is a consensus
> >> in debian-legal that the DFSG is non-free.  I say that is not for
> >> debian-legal to decide.

> > Good grief; it's reasonable to file a bug merely because I in my own
> > judgment think a package has a bug, and this applies to license bugs
> > as much as technical bugs.

> These are bugs that may be prompted closed by a maintainer, because they
> are not clearly bugs at all.  That is exactly the sort of mass filing
> that should *not* happen.

> > I have already said that I think Brian should wait on filing GFDL bugs
> > until after the release of sarge, because it is only then that the
> > Social Contract changes swing into effect.

> I disagree.  It is not clear to me these would suddenly become bugs
> after sarge's release.

Oh, for God's sake, pull your head out of the sand.  We had a
three-month-long flamewar this year about whether and when data should be
subject to the DFSG, and it was a heated flamewar precisely because
*everyone involved understood the consequences of removing non-free
documentation from main*.  Why do we need to have another flamewar about
whether a clearly non-free license is non-free, on no other basis than that
you have a grudge against the license evaluation process?

Have you read <http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.xhtml>?
Are you aware that Manoj, and many of the other signatories listed on that
page, are not part of the debian-legal group whose efforts at understanding
licenses you so rudely dismiss?  Do you understand that the GFDL question
has been discussed among a much larger audience than debian-legal, and *no
one* has offered arguments to support the claim that none of the issues
raised in Manoj's position statement are DFSG problems?

It's true that there's not a consensus about whether the DFSG *should* apply
to data and documentation (although there was a sufficient majority sharing
this belief for the GR on the question to stand), but there is certainly a
consensus about whether the GFDL is a DFSG-free license.  If you don't
actually have anything new to contribute to the understanding of the GFDL
vis à vis the DFSG, I'd suggest there are better ways you could be helping
Debian besides sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting "there is no
consensus" on a public mailing list.  How about rewriting GFDL documentation,
or fixing currently open RC bugs?

ObBug: 281181

-- 
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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