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Re: Bug#111453: hwb: now has a less restrictive license



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On Thursday 06 Sep 2001 3:35 pm, you wrote:
> Package: hwb
> Version: 1:010706-1
> Severity: normal
> Tags: sid
>
> The current hwb license:
>
> "May be copied and redistributed, partially or in whole, as
> appropriate."
>
> looks much less restrictive than the old one, perhaps it is now free
> enough for Debian to move this package from non-free to main?
>

I am afraid not.  It fails DFSG 3 (the second half of the file: 
/usr/share/doc/debian/social-contract.txt on most Debian systems) as it 
does not allow redistribution of modifications.  I have had some 
dialogue with the upstream maintainers regarding this, and as much of 
the content came from third parties whom they have lost contact with, 
they are not comfortable with relicensing it to allow modifications, 
and I sympathise with their position in this matter.

I hope that clarifies why the Hardware Book (whilst an excellent and 
valuable resource) must, for the moment at least, remain in non-free.  
I am closing this bug with this explanation.

I am CCing this reply to debian-legal@lists.debian.org  where I am 
confident that if I am wrong in this matter someone of the people there 
who understand more about licensing issues than I do will let me know 
that I am wrong.

Thank you for your interest and time,

Regards

- -- 
Stephen Stafford
bagpuss@debian.org
finger bagpuss@debian.org to get GPG public key
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