Bug#280803 Nonfree documentation
Hello!
Sorry if this topic was already discussed, but I didn´t find any
discussions in this list.
I am using testing and lots of packages aren´t ported to etch and I
tried to find out why. At my search I found this two bugs:
#193787 - http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=%23193787
#280803 - http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=280803
The main bug reason is described as follow:
|------------------------------------------
| The copyright file includes a copy of the GNU Free Documentation
| License, which has been judged by debian-legal to be non-free. Please
| remove the non-free material from the package or move the package to
| non-free.
|------------------------------------------
An explanation of the problems with the FDL you find here:
<http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.xhtml>
The problem is that every new package will be compiled with GCC4.0 and
as you can see on:
<http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/update_excuses.html#gcc-4.0>
more than 200 packages for testing won´t get updated, until this bugs
are fixed.
In my eyes there are now only a few possibilitys:
* never put packages in testing or SID, that requires GCC, but that mean
let testing and SID die (SID should also respect the Debian Free
Software Guidelines)
* talk with the Debian legal stuff, that they should do as the GNU FDL
would be free (the problem is, that the GNU FDL is written to unclearly
so it became non-free, cause it sounded very restrictive).
* talk with the GCC upstream / the FSF itself, that they chance the
license. The question is, if they are cooperativ and will chance. (best
idea, but the last chance was 2002) Also it was already tried:
<http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/05/msg00240.html>
* put everything to non-free and every software that depends on it goes
to contrib. (for GCC package maintainers easiest, for the whole Debian
projekt the biggest chance).
* chance the .deb Package. The free parts should go to main again and
the docu should go to non-free
I think the second last solution is the best solution, until the FSF
chances the license. Other opinions?
Cheers,
Stefan
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