Re: The debate on Invariant sections (long)
On Mon, 12 May 2003, [iso-8859-15] Jérôme Marant wrote:
> As long as I am a GNU Emacs user, I object to see the Emacs manual
> going to non-free. Currently, it is provided by the emacs package
> and I'm able to read it from emacs itself as soon as the package
> is installed.
> So, from the user point of view, I don't see any benefit of moving
> it elsewhere.
How about the fact that Debian's social contract and the DFSG are our only
means of determining what is good for our users, and both of those documents
(one way or another) say that the Emacs manual shouldn't be in Debian? If
you want to get those documents amended, feel free to get the GR going.
Meanwhile, I'll get the popcorn.
> I'm not in favour of applying such treatments to GNU documentation
> because GNU people will probably never act an evil way with their
> invariant sections.
>
> I know that everyone should be considered equally but I'm convinced
> that the evil will not come from the GNU ...
It's not a matter of evil, it is a matter of whether the documents qualify
as Free under the Debian interpretation of such things, as stated in the SC
and DFSG.
However, considering the snit that RMS and GNU have had over free docs and
(apparently) GPLv3, I'm not sure that their motives can be considered pure
and good any more.
--
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#include <disclaimer.h>
Matthew Palmer, Geek In Residence
http://ieee.uow.edu.au/~mjp16
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