Re: Non-free files in source packages?
Scripsit Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>
> Are there any policies surrounding what may go into the source
> packages, that Debian distribute, as far as license is concerned?
Yes. Everything in our source packages have to be DFSG-free, just as
everything in binary packages does.
> Do Debian consider it problematic if source packages include, say,
> RFCs, which, if I understand correctly, are considered non-free by
> Debian otherwise?
Yes. As soon as such cases are found by somebody who knows and cares,
bugs will be filed, and the maintainer will have to remove those data
from the .orig.tar.gz we distribute.
> Otherwise, how do Debian handle the situation when the RFC is parsed,
> and become part of the implementation?
Such software is not DFSG-free and will have to go into non-free at
best...
> In other words, where the GPL require that you distribute the RFC
> because it is the preferred "source code" to make modifications to.
... but if the rest of the code is GPL-licensed, the net result is
that the package cannot be legally distributed at all (which is
completely independent of the DFSG).
--
Henning Makholm "The great secret, known to internists and
learned early in marriage by internists' wives, but
still hidden from the general public, is that most things get
better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning."
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