Re: Linux Magazin Germany, affecting Debian's image?!

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Matthew Palmer writes ("Re: Linux Magazin Germany, affecting Debian's image?!"):
> On Tue, Jul 18, 2006 at 05:04:02PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > If you distribute binary images with a magazine and have something in
> > that magazine saying "if you want the source write to <address> with a
> > photocopy of this specific text", everything is okay.
> 
> No more so than "if you want the source write to <address>, enclosing a
> picture of you petting a cat".  Unless, of course, you can show that "a
> photocopy of this specific text" is a necessary cost of providing the
> source.

For an organisation who don't normally deal with this kind of thing,
having some way for their clueless minions to easily tell that this is
really what they should be doing is indeed a necessary cost of
providing the source.

Of course the organisation could do it some other way: they could give
a different address with more highly-paid people answering the post,
or some such - but then the cost would probably be higher.  So they
have done as they should do, and minimised the overall cost (which
they are entitled according to the GPL to pass on to the requester).

Ian.