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Re: GR proposal: GFDL with no Invariant Sections is free



On Sat, 04 Feb 2006, olive wrote:
> Don Armstrong wrote:
> >When we discuss them, we can discern between the two cases, but
> >it's not appropriate for Debian to bend its own guidelines to allow
> >in works which do not meet the requirements of the DFSG simply
> >because we think it would be nice to include them.
> 
> But there are a lot of case where this is not the case and I think
> people claim that the license violates the DFSG just because they do
> no like it.

For me at least, there are a lot of licenses which I don't like which
I believe don't fall afoul of the DFSG. I assume there are others who
feel similarly. I try very hard to make it clear when I'm voicing
dissatisfaction with the license, and when I'm pointing out part of
the license which is DFSG incompatible.

> There is no rule which say that "every bits of a file can be
> modified"; but there are law which says that you must be able to use
> your freedom.

I'm not sure what else you can reasonably interpret DFSG 3 as meaning.

> Debian has already accepted resctriction similar to the GFDL
> (acknoledgement of the BSD license etc,...); the invariant sections
> are in nature not more (these are acknoledgement for the GNU
> project; and yes it a bit longer).

Save for the fact that they're not invariant, or you don't actually
have to include those sections. [And yes, many of us do have problems
with GPL 2c as well.]
 
> I think of a license of a file in x.org which prohibit to export it
> to Cuba. This seems clearly be a discrimination and moreover it
> fails the dissident test (even if in this case the dissidant might
> be a U.S citizen; not a chinese one). For someone (like me) living
> outside the U.S. this is even more flagrant because to export goods
> to Cuba is perfectly legal from my country.

If this were actually stated in the license, it would be non free.
Indeed, if clause 8 of GPLv2 were ever activated for a piece of
software in Debian, I think it would become non-free as well, DFSG §10
be damned.

As others have explained in this thread, that's a legal export
requirement imposed on people by the US government which has been
conflated with the licence by mere proximity instead of intent.


Don Armstrong

-- 
If you have the slightest bit of intellectual integrity you cannot
support the government. -- anonymous

http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu

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