Re: DRAFT: debian-legal summary of the QPL
On Tue, Jul 13, 2004 at 06:36:29PM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> But the QPL also fails the dissident test, and has a much less onerous
> requirement than the "Add your name to a wiki" license.
It has an "archive all distributed copies until the expiration of copyright"
requirement (QPL#6 has no expiration!), which is far more onerous, IMO.
> The problem is that it's not clear what the dissident test was made for.
> In combination with the desert island test, there's effectively a
> requirement that changes can be kept private. That's not a test any
> more, that's a guideline. There should either be a clear argument that
> the right to keep modifications private is enshrined in the DFSG as
> stands, or alternatively we should go through the necessary procedure to
> change the DFSG.
"Send it to a third party" and "reveal your identity" are just as readily
read as non-free from DFSG#1 as "pet a cat" and "distribution only on CD".
If the former can't be considered non-free from DFSG#1, then I don't think
the latter can, either; DFSG#1 would be rendered meaningless.
(To be clear, the latter two requirements are ones which I find clearly
and obviously non-free; if we differ on those, we probably have deeper
disagreements.)
Yes, there's interpretation involved. The DFSG is, as we all know, a set
of guidelines; it must be interpreted to have any meaning at all, and
debian-legal is the list on which that interpretation is done.
--
Glenn Maynard
Reply to: