On Sun, Mar 17, 2002 at 02:10:17PM -0800, C.M. Connelly wrote:
> Exactly. So the question is, does the DFSG really apply to
> documentation or not?
Of course it does. Read the Debian Social Contract.
1. Debian Will Remain 100% Free Software
We promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution entirely free
software. As there are many definitions of free software, we
include the guidelines we use to determine if software is "free"
below. We will support our users who develop and run non-free
software on Debian, but we will never make the system depend on an
item of non-free software.
The Debian Distribution is entirely, 100% Free Software.
If it's software, it must be Free to be part of the Distribution.
We can treat all kinds of things as "software" for the purposes of our
social contract (documentation, images, sound files, sample core dumps
from a PDP-11 -- whatever). In doing so, however, this non-software
must meet the same critera as software -- that is, it must be Free -- or
it cannot be part of our distribution. That's the current status. To
change it will require a General Resolution.
People are way too hung up on this "documentation" issue. Somehow
people have the notion that its more legitimate for copyright holders to
withhold the freedoms that we insist upon when we're talking about
something that isn't software in the strictest sense.
In that case, I invite you to purge from your Debian/GNU system
*EVERYTHING* that is not software according to definition you think we
should be applying. Then get back to me and tell me how useful the
system is. I imaging that people who are accustomed to the GNOME or KDE
desktop environments, or even manual pages, with find their experience
compromised.
--
G. Branden Robinson | Exercise your freedom of religion.
Debian GNU/Linux | Set fire to a church of your
branden@debian.org | choice.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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