Re^4: non-free and "cd-ok", again
Am 06.07.98 schrieb sr1 # os.inf.tu-dresden.de ...
Moin Sven!
SR> According to my research only 38 out of the 235 packages in non-free
SR> can be distributed commercially. I didn't understand some licenses, so
SR> you might find some more packages.
For example you can distribute most of my non-free packages like doc-html-
w3, hwb, cecillia, ...
SR> But this is a lawyers job, neither Debian nor most of the CD makers
SR> will have the ressources to find out what the creator of the licenses
SR> wanted to say, what the license says and what other lawyers will read.
I don#t understand that. We already do that for the main part. Where#s the
problem? The maintainer asks the upstream maintainer, if we#re allowed to
sell his programm on CD.
Do you think, an upstream maintainer is interested to answer the copyright
questions of every Debian CD producer?
SR> If we want to make life easier for CD makers we should:
SR> - Convince the authors to change the license.
That is nonsense, for example most american universities use non-free
license and the author himself could not change the license.
SR> - Support DFSG-free alternatives.
The user should choose if he want to use free or non-free software and non
the Debian team! As user I need some non-free programms like gs 5.0 or
spice. And a lot of programms in non-free are relative free.
SR> - Convince the authors to make their licenses more readable.
???
SR> For most non-free packages the authors are making life difficult for
SR> the cd venders, and Debian (aka we) can't do anything about this
SR> unless the author changes the license.
We shouldn#t force the author to use a special license. That#s very bad!
The Debian maintainer could suggest to change the license, but in a lot of
cases this is not possible: patents, etc.
SR> Producing a free Linux distribution makes life easier for cd vendors.
Again, at the moment the user needs non-free packages. This is a fact.
SR> The vendorsdon't need non-free software; some users do. But the users
SR> have to accept that the vendors have to adhere to law.
As a user I wouldn#t buy a main/contrib only CDROM.
cu, Marco
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Mailbox: mbudde@hqsys.antar.com http://www.tu-harburg.de/~semb2204/
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