[Jim trimmed from CC; I'm not sure why his address was in your M-F-T.] On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 09:43:33AM +1100, Brian May wrote: > Just out of curiosity, are documents like the DFSG distrubuted with > Debian? Well, certainly some documents "like" the DFSG might be distributed as part of the Debian system. As regards the DFSG specifically: doc-debian: /usr/share/doc/debian/social-contract.txt Package: doc-debian Status: install ok installed Priority: standard Section: doc Installed-Size: 844 Maintainer: Josip Rodin <jrodin@jagor.srce.hr> Version: 3.0.1 Suggests: www-browser, postscript-viewer Description: Debian Project documentation, Debian FAQ and other documents The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. . In this package, you will find: * Debian Linux Manifesto, * Constitution for the Debian Project, * Debian GNU/Linux Social Contract, * Debian Free Software Guidelines. . Additionally provided are: * Debian GNU/Linux Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), * Debian Bug Tracking System documentation, and * Introduction to the Debian mailing lists. . All of these files are available at ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/doc/ and mirrors thereof. > If so, are you allowed to modify them? The answer is either "unknown" or "yes". http://www.debian.org/social_contract and scroll to the bottom. See the copyright notice? http://www.debian.org/license > (I assume documents like the GPL, being licenses, are excempt from this > requirement?) The DFSG doesn't make any exceptions for license texts used as such (i.e., when they are applied to a work that is being distributed under its terms), but earlier this year I proposed making such an exception explicit in my "proposed interpretive guidelines". However, my proposal was never formally adopted by anyone, so as far as I know it only reflects my thinking on issues. So the official answer to your question is probably "unknown". > Also, I note that /usr/doc/debian-policy/copyright (woody) has a > copyright for FSSTND, and it says "No portion of this document may be > redistributed in any modified or abridged form without the prior > approval of the FSSTND coordinator.". > > Does this mean that the FSSTND should never have been distributed with > Debian? Obviously it must have been at one stage, or it wouldn't be in > the copyright file. Under our current standards, probably not. We used to be considerably less careful about licensing than we are now, and furthermore when we adopted the DFSG we never did an audit of main to identify everything within it that might not meet its terms. The Debian Policy Manual predates the Social Contract and DFSG, if I'm not mistaken, so it's possible this language was simply never reviewed in the context of the DFSG. -- G. Branden Robinson | Never attribute to malice that Debian GNU/Linux | which can be adequately explained branden@debian.org | by stupidity. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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