Re: Desert island test
2008/2/28, Sean Kellogg <skellogg@gmail.com>:
> An actual cite to the DFSG, but it is from before my time... of course, there
> is no explanation of how a "licenses in which any changes must be sent to
> some specific place" violates:
>
> 1. Free redistribution.
1. Free Redistribution: The license of a Debian component may not
restrict any party from selling or giving away the software [...]
You are restricting people who lack the ability to send the changes
back, put in a web page, or just being in a desert island. If you
happened to have a plane accident (ref: Lost) and end up in a desert
place unconnected to the rest of the world, and happened to have a
computer and a Debian DVD there, you wouldn't be allowed -according to
the license- to modify it or distribute it among the rest of the
people in that place. That also applies to the dissident test, if
you're in a country (dictatorship or so) where distributing some
software is severely punished for some reason, you wouldn't be able to
comply with those license terms (you couldn't set up a web page and
put the program online), and thus you couldn't give a copy of it to
your neighbor next door. You're restricting some people from selling
or giving away the software.
I hope it's clearer now.
Miry
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