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Re: REVISED PROPOSAL regarding DFSG 3 and 4, licenses, and modifiable text



Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> writes:

> If it's not *Software* then either,
> 
> 1) We must treat it as such, or;
> 2) We have no mandate to deal with it at all.

We don't need a mandate.  The US Congress is (theoretically) limited
to the enumerated powers given in the US Constitution, but that's a
unique case.  

The first clause does not mean "everything in Debian is free
software"--how could it?  We all agree that much that is in Debian is
not software.  It says, if you want a literal reading, that all the
software in Debian is free.  It leaves unstated what the policy is for
things other than software.

Some such things (for example, the official Debian logo) are quite
tightly restricted, for reasonable reasons.  

But it's becoming clear to me that there are only two people who think
we even need to worry about this at all.  So I propose that the rest
of us simply not bother any further.  Or, Branden, perhaps you could
write a proposal that isn't you more-or-less dictating what the world
must be!



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