Bug#401173: base-file: include GFDL and more licences in /usr/share/common-licenses/
On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 11:20:23PM +0200, Jari Aalto wrote:
> > > On Fri, 1 Dec 2006, Jari Aalto wrote:
> > >> SUGGESTION
> > >> Please add more standard license texts in the directory. Like:
> > >> - GFDL
> > >> - MIT/X license
> > >> - Apache License
> > >> - PHP License
> > >> - http://creativecommons.org/ (when DFSG ready)
> > I agree with the proposal to add the GFDL and Apache 2.0 licenses; they're
> > already used by multiple packages and would save copyright file length and
> > duplication.
> This was my intention.
Agreed. I may not be happy with the GFDL as a license, but I imagine it's
one of the most common licenses for documentation in Debian and it is
allowed for main following the past vote -- and I know there's no consensus
in Debian that all of the other licenses included in common-licenses are
good licenses either.
> > (Although I can see an argument against adding the GFDL
> > because not all of its provisions are DFSG-free.)
> But the License text itself is "an entity" that can be distributed I
> assume, although programs that may refer to certain sections cannot.
The purpose of common-licenses is to allow inclusion by reference of a
number of commonly used licenses that we need to ship for *legal* reasons.
If we start treating common-licenses as *content*, we no longer have a good
reason why non-modifiable license texts should be acceptable.
> > The MIT/X license cannot be handled in this way. It includes varient text
> > (the name of the organization) that changes in each license. It will have
> > to continue to live in each individual copyright file.
> - I'd also like to see PHP license included if that's possible.
> - Perhaps the policy should not mention any specific licenses, but
> point readers to visit http://www.debian.org/legal/licenses/
As long as "common-licenses" isn't a misnomer, the PHP license has no
business being included in base-files. It's a broken license that is
unsuitable for any software that isn't PHP itself.
Cheers,
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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