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Re: The Helixcommunity RPSL is not DFSG-free



On Wed, Mar 05, 2003 at 10:27:10PM -0800, Rob Lanphier wrote:
> All I gotta say is "God bless Google", because otherwise I would have
> had no idea that such a personally relevant topic was being so hotly
> debated.

On this mailing list we generally feel that it's a good idea to reach an
internal consensus, if possible, before approaching copyright holders
with concerns about their licenses.  It cuts down on the phenomenon of
multiple people mailing an author in a cluster, each providing a
slightly different spin on what's "wrong" with his or her license --
some authors find that *very* annoying.

> As mentioned by Dave Turner, the talks between RealNetworks and the Free
> Software Foundation are ongoing.  Digging back through this thread has
> been useful input for us.  I need to get around to setting up another 
> call to discuss.

Sounds good; while I'm confident the Free Software Foundation will
fairly accurately represent views that are shared by the Debian Project
(except perhaps in the documentation department), we'd be happy to
participate in such a discussion if you'd like.

> I think I understand the "Chinese dissident" example, and it's
> actually illuminating, but as Russ points out, not at all captured in
> the DFSG.  If it's important to the Debian community, it should
> probably be captured there.

There are some long-standing procedural options that have made this
difficult, but it is an item of which we're acutely aware.

> We're currently evaluating our license with this thread in mind, but 
> does anybody have new suggested wording?

Hopefully the folks on this list will avail themselves of the
opportunity; if not, I'll see if I can spare a few moments for a close
reading of the RPSL in the near future.

Speaking for myself, I very much appreciate Real giving serious
consideration to Free licensing of its codec(s).  If the practical
effect of this is that I can use software in Debian main to listen to
Real-encoded programming at www.npr.org, I'll be a very happy man
indeed.  :)

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |     It just seems to me that you are
Debian GNU/Linux                   |     willfully entering an arse-kicking
branden@debian.org                 |     contest with a monstrous entity
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |     that has sixteen legs and no arse.

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