Martin Schulze wrote:
I've sent this letter to the PHP group: -------------------------------------------- Dear authors, we are a group of developers that build up an entire GNU/Linux system based on the Linux kernel, GNU utilities and a lot of other software. It is named Debian GNU/Linux <http://www.debian.org/>, you may already have heard about it.
Martin,I may not be the most tactful person in the world, not a debian-legal regular or Debian developer, but I feel I should say that if I received an email like the one you sent the PHP developers, my first reaction would be rather negative towards the author and his organisation.
The attitude which came across in your email seemed to be "We're the big and important Debian project, and we've been violating your licence, which is a bit of a shame, but please tell us we can keep doing so, otherwise we'll yank your software from our distribution, and you wouldn't want that, would you?" As the recipient of it, I certainly wouldn't be inspired to work out a constructive solution.
Perhaps it would be advisable for letters which go out carrying the authority of Debian ("We are a group of developers...") to be reviewed by the list before being sent?
Gerv