Re: OSD && DFSG convergence
John Goerzen writes:
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 05:08:15PM -0500, Russell Nelson wrote:
> > > Further, a case could be made that it violates clase 5 ("No discrimination
> > > against persons or groups") because it discriminates against people whom
> > > choose to file legal cases against Apple.
> >
> > Sorry, but that's the Constitution's commerce clause all over again.
> > Once you start using that clause that way, the DFSG may as well say
> > "Ugh".
>
> I don't follow, can you explain?
Every license that has any interesting terms discriminates. The GPL
discriminates against people who don't want to give away their code.
The APSL discriminates against people who don't want to give away
their patents. The RPSL discriminates against people who want to keep
modifications private, even though they have been distributed within
their organization. The Apache License discriminates against people
who want to call their modified web server "Apache". The MIT license
discriminates against embedded system creators. And on and on.
If you use this clause in the manner you suggest, then many licenses
would become DFSG-nonfree even though a reasonable person would call
them free software licenses.
> > Take out the R&D and personal use grants. Does it still comply with
> > the DFSG? Now add them back. How is it possible for more freedom to
> > make the software DFSG-nonfree?
>
> Because the freedom is distributed unevenly.
Where in the DFSG does it say THAT? Sheesh! And you guys seem to
think there aren't any problems with the DFSG. Sure there aren't!
That's because you've already amended the DFSG in your own minds.
Well how about the rest of us who aren't mind-readers? How about
putting these conclusions into the DFSG?
Lemme put it to you this way: if you can't get the membership of
Debian to agree to amend the DFSG so it says X, then what right do you
have to interpret the DFSG as meaning X? If the Debian membership
doesn't agree that the DFSG should say X, then you have no standing to
say that it means X.
--
-russ nelson http://russnelson.com | You get prosperity when
Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | the government does less,
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