Re: discussion with the FSF: GPLv3, GFDL, Nexenta

[Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org>]

On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 08:01:24PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 02:42:24AM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 06:49:54PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> > > If you're claiming "you don't get to exercise your right to argue
> > > about jurisdiction" is equivalent to "you must pet a cat", then, IMO,
> > > you need to argue the same thing about "you don't get to exercise your
> > > patent rights".
> > You're aware that most of the people arguing that choice of venue clauses
> > are non-free also hold the opinion that patent non-enforcement as a
> > condition of the copyright license is also non-free?

> No, not at all. It's been years since I've followed -legal, and I
> certainly don't keep track of who thinks what. I fundamentally don't
> think it *matters* what individual subscribers to -legal think.

I'm just saying that "you need to argue the same thing" isn't much of a
barrier, since AFAIK the people arguing against choice-of-venue clauses on
this theory have already done so in the past and are likely to do so again
if given cause ;)

> What I care about is having a reasonable, widely understood definition
> of free software that meshes with the rest of the free software and open
> source community, that Debian can use to work out what software we'll
> distribute in main.

That's a good goal; but Debian has disagreed with other folks in the past
because we believed their interpretations were irrational and contrary to
the long-term interests of Free Software, and it's my own opinion that
various folks in the wider community are in this position today, so I hope
that such meshing is the result of a sustained dialogue and not just Debian
giving in to whatever the folks with the cool technology of the day that
everyone wants to use have are peddling as a license.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/