[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Bug#884228: debian-policy: please add OFL-1.1 to common licenses



Am 28.12.2017 um 23:10 schrieb Russ Allbery:
> Markus Koschany <apo@debian.org> writes:
> 
>> Why do we add the BSD license to common-licenses but not MIT and zlib?
> 
> I'm not sure why the BSD license was included in common-licenses
> originally.  My theory was that it was to include all the licenses
> mentioned by name in the DFSG.  However, the version in common-licenses is
> specific to code whose copyright is held by the University of California,
> so it's not very useful.  Including it there in that form was probably a
> mistake.
> 
> We found multiple packages in Debian that referred to the common-licenses
> version of the BSD license but weren't actually released under that
> license.  That's why Policy now says to not reference the version of the
> BSD license in common-licenses.
> 
> We haven't removed it because it's very hard to do that.  There are still
> quite a few packages in the archive that reference it (many possibly
> incorrectly).
> 
> See https://bugs.debian.org/284340.

I see. Thanks for your explanation.

Apparently including more DFSG-licenses is a recurring theme. It is
telling that this even goes back to 2004. One faction would like to see
BSD/MIT/zlib aka permissive short-licenses included, the other side
believes this could be ambiguous and mistakes are inevitable.

*sigh*

This is like prohibiting cars for transportation because they could be
used as weapons or football matches because someone could get hurt. I
believe we make life for us more difficult than necessary. Well, I guess
it can't be helped...




Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Reply to: