Re: Does DFSG#2 apply to non-programs?

[Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>]

* Francesco Poli:

> But if you propose to disable DFSG#2 for non-programs, you have to
> propose a criterion to tell programs and non-programs apart.
> IOW, you must be able to tell when DFSG#2 must be applied and when it
> may be ignored...

It's enough if we are sufficiently confident that such a distinction
can be made on a case-by-case basis.  After all, there is no real
algorithm for testing DFSG compliance.

Personally, I think that we can make this distinction, but actually,
we shouldn't, at least for technical documentation which describes how
a program works.  If we change the program, we sometimes need to
change the documentation.  If it's in a closed format (even
non-proprietary ones, like DVI), this task is unnecessarily
complicated.  Given its practical implications, I am really supprised
that this aspect is still controversial.