Re: Visualboy Advance question.

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Francesco Poli wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 09:50:35 +1000 Matthew Palmer wrote:
<snip>

>> Let me ask you this: if there was an image viewer, which only viewed
>> one format of images, and there were no images out there in that
>> format, would you want to see that in Debian?  What if there were
>> images in that format, but in order to get them you'd have to break
>> copyright law?
> 
> Cannot someone create some free image in that format in the near future?
Maybe.  If so, go ahead.

If it is in fact extremely difficult to create images in that format (yes,
you could have an image format which is easy to read but very hard to write
even with source code for the reader available), then maybe the answer is
"no".

> Why should Debian wait for one such image to *be packaged* before moving
> the viewer from contrib to main?
Oh, it doesn't need to be packaged.  If it is, however, it proves that such
an image exists.

>> That second case is pretty much where we stand with a *lot* of game
>> console emulators out there -- the only way to get data to use with
>> them is to break the law.  Wonderful.
> 
> A real example: prboom is in contrib (at least in Woody). It's free
> (under the GNU GPL license). It doesn't depend on non-free packages. It
> can be installed without pulling in non-free packages and can execute
> the FreeDoom IWADs that are free[1] (under a 3-clause BSD license), but
> not packaged for Debian.

It seems like this belongs in main.  But why hasn't anyone packaged any of
the free IWADs?

-- 
There are none so blind as those who will not see.