Re: The draft Position statement on the GFDL
Scripsit Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>
> On Tue, May 11, 2004 at 05:22:11PM +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > Yes.
> That's in direct, literal conflict with the DFSG (clause 10).
Nonsense.
> The GPL specifically disallows creation of copies with changes -- no
> matter how functional -- which include restrictions on the rights of
> other users of derivatives.
And that specifically was not what you were describing.
Your literal words were:
> > > So, in essence, you think that the DFSG says we must disallow the
> > > distribution of gcc if its license prevents you distributing copies which
> > > have been functionally modified to better integrate with microsoft's
> > > palladium?
I do not see any connection at all between that and "restrictions on
the rights of other users of derivates".
> > With the DFSG we promise to our users that they can take any software
> > in main and modify it for any purpose - and distribute such modified
> > version under the same license as the software they started out
> > with. "Any purpose" here includes modifications that lets it work with
> > "microsoft's palladium", whatever this is.
> We do not promise this.
Yes, we do. That's the fundamental role of the Debian Free Software
Guidelines. If you do not understand this, we have no common basis for
communicating.
> Feel free to quote the promise to me if you disagree.
Read the Social Contract: "Debian will remain 100% free". That is a
promise, and the contents of that promise includes what I wrote.
> As an aside, Microsoft's Palladium is currently a mix of software and
> hardware vaporware, where some claims about its feature set appear to
> mean that free software would be impossible to use in that environment.
Aha. However, if somebody manages to modify gcc such that it can
nevertheless be used in that environment, then it is perfectly legal
to distribute the modified gcc under the same terms as gcc itself.
--
Henning Makholm "Gå ud i solen eller regnen, smil, køb en ny trøje,
slå en sludder af med købmanden, puds dine støvler. Lev!"
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