Re: Why is choice of venue non-free ?
On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 12:11:42PM +0100, Andreas Barth wrote:
> * Marco d'Itri (md@Linux.IT) [050205 11:55]:
> > vorlon@debian.org wrote:
>
> > >For this reason, Debian should reject choice of venue clauses as non-free.
> > >At best, they give an underdog copyright holder a small advantage while
> > >enforcing his rights, but at worst they give a hostile copyright holder a
> > >large advantage while persecuting the Free Software community.
>
> > This is an interesting opinion, but I can't see which part of the DFSG
> > supports it.
>
> The DFSG also doesn't tell us that we should not distribute too buggy
> software - but we still try to avoid release such packages.
That's not the issue.
The DFSG also doesn't explicitly tell us that licenses which say "if you
wish to modify this software, pet a cat", but they're clearly non-free.
(I've already explained how this relates to the DFSG, despite the DFSG
not attempting to exhaustively list non-free restrictions.)
People like Marco keep saying "the DFSG doesn't say it explicitly,
therefore it should be allowed", which is irresponsible, favoring
getting their warez in main (despite the latest ugly restrictions)
over keeping Debian Free. Instead, he and others should be arguing
why they think a clause *should* be allowed: why the restrictions
it places on users are not onerous. If they can't do that, they're
essentially saying "I know it's an abusable, overreaching restriction,
and I can't argue otherwise, but it should go in main anyway!"
--
Glenn Maynard
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