Re: A radical approach to rewriting the DFSG
Francesco Poli wrote:
> * question: "Such a restriction is exactly as silly as it sounds.
> However, some otherwise free programs come with licenses that specify
> that the program must not be sold alone but only as part of an aggregate
> software distribution."
> Do you regard those programs as free? Is there any consensus on d-l
> about this awkward restriction?
I believe the general consensus is that since the requirement is so
trivially satisfiable, it is considered free. As long as there is no
restriction on how much additional software must be included, the
requirement could be satisfied by either:
* the rest of the Debian archive, or
* the Debian packaging scripts for that package, or
* a one byte file containing "w", which would be a valid sh script to
run the "w" command.
In addition, the program used to satisfy the requirement does not need
to be in the same package; it could be available alongside the program
on the same site.
- Josh Triplett
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