On Wed, Jul 14, 2004 at 12:01:22PM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> wrote:
>
> >Where does the Social Contract bind us to using no tool other than the DFSG
> >to determine whether a work we distribute as part of our system is free?
> >
> >Interestingly, the new version of the Social Contract[1] seems to give us
> >less latitude than the original version[2] in using anything adjunct to the
> >DFSG for freeness determinations.
>
> Given that the changes to the SC were merely editorial (as stated in the
> proposal that was seconded by you), any restriction present in the new
> SC that isn't there in the old one is down to you misreading the old
> one.
Not necessrily. It could be the case that the guidelines are guidelines in
both cases, that I was right about the meaning of the old SC, and that I am
simply misreading the *new* one.
> I'm certainly not clear that the new SC gives any leeway to use tests
> that don't spring directly from the DFSG.
Put that way, it doesn't give us any leeway to use "tests" at all.
In any event, I laid out my approach to upholding the Social Contract in
this respect a while back[1].
Feel free to take it apart now, since you didn't at the time.
[1] Message-ID: <20030305165259.GP27250@deadbeast.net>
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/03/msg00211.html
--
G. Branden Robinson | A fundamentalist is someone who
Debian GNU/Linux | hates sin more than he loves
branden@debian.org | virtue.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- John H. Schaar
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