Distribution of license documents (fwd)
[This is my second attempt to send this message. The first failed because
I mis-splet an email address. Oops. Still, it's just as well, since I
was wrong on several points]
I have chosen not to post this message to -devel, since I feel that
-policy is the correct forum.
I would like to briefly note, in the abstract, that name-calling and any
kind of personally directed rhetoric is undesirable, even when provoked.
On to more important matters...
So, my latest proposal is:
We do not get too distracted by the issue I we have spent most of the
weekend debating. Marcus summarised it well in his last two emails. It
is not entirely clear whether all licenses *require* distribution with
binaries, but some certainly do, and we continue to distribute licenses
with binary packages, as a courtesy to the author (and some licenses may
legitimately require that we do, of course). If the technical proposal of
md5sum'ing overlaps becomes implemented, we migrate all symlinks to actual
inclusion. But I do not see that as a major issue.
We outline our stance on free licenses on the web page, get the
long-suffering Nils to do a press release on it, and make some noise.
Possibly, out of courtesy, we should privately get RMS's thoughts on it
first.
Any package which consisted of standalone licenses would go in verbatim.
We similarly outline our stance on free standards.
Any non-free standards go in verbatim.
We also make a public statement on free content, although acknowledging
maybe that this is a different battle.
Any non-free 'works of art' (non-free content) goes in verbatim.
Unless I have forgotten something, I suspect the only 'non-free' left in
main will then be the licenses themselves. I think that this is a worthy
exception. It appears to be required by the X consortium license, and the
GPL, and it could certainly be required by another license, without
rendering said license non-DFSG free.
I will emphasise that verbatim *is* (IMO) a part of debian. It is in no
way 'less' a part of debian than main. However, we recognise the value of
free licenses, free standards and also free content, and we attempt to
ensure that main remains free *with the single exception that* we will
always include the license with a package, even if that license is
non-free.
[As a side note, we should attempt to ensure that all grpahics in
main - e.g. example pixmaps, themes for E, backgrounds for Eterm, etc. are
free]
Comments, please...
Jules
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| Jelibean aka | jules@jellybean.co.uk | 6 Evelyn Rd |
| Jules aka | jules@debian.org | Richmond, Surrey |
| Julian Bean | jmlb2@hermes.cam.ac.uk | TW9 2TF *UK* |
+----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+
| War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left. |
| When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy. |
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