Re: ITP: php-recaptcha -- PHP interface to recaptcha.net
[Petter Reinholdtsen]
> We do not put into non-free programs with patent problems
[Felipe Sateler]
> We do not have a clear policy on what to do with patented software.
> See bug 522373.
I suspect we have the same point, thought you mention "patented
software" and I limit myself to "programs with patent problems". To
me, it is fairly obvious that all software have some behaviour covered
by some patent somewhere, given how little is required to get a patent
in some jurisdictions. This is why I do not talk about "patented
software" - that is all software, but only "programs with patent
problems" which to me is programs using knowledge where someone with
the monopoly on the user of that knowledge (patent) is actively trying
to keep others from using the knowledge. I hope that make my comment
more clear.
My point on patents were simply that the Debian project do not have a
policy of putting software with patents being actively enforced into
non-free. I suspect the closest thing we have to a policy is a risk
evaluation done by the ftpmasters when they decide if the package
should be included in the archive or not. Putting such package in
non-free is not an option, as far as I understand this, as the risk
probably would be the same. Non-free is for software not following
the DFSG while still being distributable, and that is the only
criteria used to decide if the package should go in non-free or not.
Patent issues are used to decide if it is distributable at all, which
is a completely different criteria. If it is distributable, it might
was well end up in main or contrib. :)
Happy hacking,
--
Petter Reinholdtsen
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