Re: Debian's Linux kernel continues to regress on freedom
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On 09/12/07 03:57, Miriam Ruiz wrote:
> 2007/9/12, John Kelly <jak@isp2dial.com>:
>> On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:41:29 +0000 (UTC), Sune Vuorela
>> <nospam@vuorela.dk> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2007-09-12, John Kelly <jak@isp2dial.com> wrote:
>>>> "Distribution of this memo is unlimited."
>>>>
>>>> With RFCs available to anyone with a web browser, it's absurd to say
>>>> they're non-free, and a waste of time removing them from Debian.
>>> eh? whattabout modification? and distribution of modified versions?
>> This is where it gets absurd.
>>
>> They're RFCs. They're not code.
>>
>> If you want to "modify" an RFC, you have to write your own and submit
>> it, see?
>
> Why is it absurd? What about translating it, for example, or including
> parts of it in other document, or mixing parts of RFCs in a single
> document, or making a derivative specification out of it, or changing
> the format or structure for clarifying, or even fixing typos? What
> about including some parts of an RFC in the help text of an
> application, .. I can see many situations in which a modification of
> the RFC text could be important.
Except for "fixing typos", none of what you seem to propose seems
to my humble eyes to be modifying the base document. Give the new
document a derived name, indicating the changes. Inside the
document, clearly define what changes you've made to the base document.
Someone who uses the modified RFC would create a buggy-by-design
program and when he realized what some DD had done, boy would he
(and his bosses, if relevant) be steamed, his trust in Debian would
plunge, he might write a Slashdotted article that ZDNet picks up on,
and FLOSS get a big black eye.
Bottom line: being able to willy-nilly change protocol specification
base documents seems, to me, to be One *Stupid* Idea.
- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA USA
Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.
Hit him with a fish, and he goes away for good!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFG568/S9HxQb37XmcRAh1FAJ41yYrS5NB4sppg/0zaYEn80nSo3gCfU55d
ZQnfr8UEvltME1cTdqYljHE=
=csfM
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply to: