Op di 12-08-2003, om 11:14 schreef MJ Ray: > Wouter Verhelst <wouter@grep.be> wrote: > >> * Why do you feel this? > > Because in my opinion, that of the FSF, and that of the people who > > negotiated an international agreement on software copyright, > > The FSF isn't directly relevant to this. The lawmakers may be. > > > documentation and computer programs are two distinct things. > > The assertion you seemed to be making is that software and documentation > are two different things. Is that not so? I was, with the understanding that my definition of 'software' is, and has always been, 'computer programs'. Since that definition is clearly not shared among others, I revert to using 'computer programs', to avoid confusion. > > Even if you can apply the DFSG to documentation, different laws apply, > > and people have different inclinations to write documentation as > > opposed to writing software. > > Do the different laws make any practical difference that renders the > DFSG invalid for documents? None that I know of; however, that does not mean there are none. > At least some people write docs for the same reasons as they write code. > Please try not to over-generalise. Well, at least it can be said that documentation usually doesn't have the same purpose as a computer program. > >> * Documentation is irrelevant, as we can't ship it in isolation from the > >> document containing it. Do you think documents and other works should be > > > > s/document/program here, I presume? > > No. Remember, "document != documentation" ;-) > > >> treated differently to programs? > > Yes. > > Is this purely because of legal differences? No; also because I feel that there is a difference in purpose, which may warrant a difference in license policy. > >> * Do you feel that agrees with your responsibilities as a developer? > > > > Yes, as it is not because I feel the rules of free documentation should > > be different from those of free 'computer programs', that I do not think > > documentation should not be free. > > Trying to unravel negations: Do you think documentation should not be > free because you feel the rules of free documentation should be different > from programs? No. I feel documentation for free software should be free. However, I think the way you define 'free documentation' is not interchangeable with the way you define 'free software' (having software be 'computer programs' here); it deserves another definition. > >> Is a GR now a better fix than completing the draft debian documentation > >> policy to reflect intended practice? > > I don't think a draft documentation policy, based on the DFSG, would fix > > anything. > > It would clarify that Debian requires the documentation to be consistent > with the DFSG and avoid future misunderstandings about whether it is > software. Hm. Right; I must've been too tired when I wrote that. Please ignore it. > [...] > > Is there a responsible delegate? I wasn't aware of that. Who is it, and > > what exactly is his/her responsibility? > > There's probably a better thing to quote, but I'm sure it's been > mentioned recently on this list. Here's from the DD Reference:-- > > "The debian/control file's Section and Priority fields do not > actually specify where the file will be placed in the archive, nor its > priority. In order to retain the overall integrity of the archive, > it is the archive maintainers who have control over these fields." > http://www.uk.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/ch-pkgs.en.html#s-override-file > > Archive maintainers? From the Org page on the web:-- Ah, that's what you mean. The archives maintainers are responsible for interpreting what we have. They're not responsible for redefining the rules of the game, if required; for that, only the Debian Developers, as a whole, are responsible. [...current list...] > Exact responsibilities may be a bit fuzzy, as I expect that it's a > job old enough that I can't find a delegation announcement, but the > above makes it look like this one is clearly their buck. Maybe. I'm not going to get deep into this, though; the archive maintainers are free to join, should they choose so. -- Wouter Verhelst Debian GNU/Linux -- http://www.debian.org Nederlandstalige Linux-documentatie -- http://nl.linux.org "An expert can usually spot the difference between a fake charge and a full one, but there are plenty of dead experts." -- National Geographic Channel, in a documentary about large African beasts.
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