Re: Including more licenses in 12.5

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Adeodato Simó <dato@net.com.org.es> wrote:

> And now, I will give an extra command:
>
> % find /usr/share/doc -type f -name copyright |  \
>   xargs egrep -l 'GNU.+Documentation' | wc -l
> 168
>
> (On my laptop this number is 268.)
>
> This is because one and each of the binary packages coming from kde.org
> (of which there are around 500) ships a copy of the GFDL. I would
> certainly like to see this license shipped as a "common license".

Indeed.  If we take "space savings" as the main argument to include a
license in common-licenses, then the GFDL should be in there.  On the
other hand, if we connect a statement to the inclusion, like "this is a
license that Debian likes", we should not include it.  But on the other
hand, we could then include other licenses that are maybe less common,
but are free without doubt, may have their benefits in certain
circumstances, and maybe have been improved specifically because of
Debian's wishes/negotiations.

I'd rather go for the second option; and the to-be published CC licenses
come to mind as a good example (should they be as expected/hoped); or
maybe the LPPL (as an example of how a "discouraged compromise" can be
implemented properly).

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)