Re: Patent clauses in licenses
On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 02:12:16PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> By comparison, how does debian protect the freedom to vote against
> software patent supporters in our legislatures? That's clearly an
> issue affecting free software, but we don't take specific action to
> protect it.
We don't have to: nothing Debian is doing or refusing to do is affecting it.
Debian's distribution or lack of distribution will have a direct impact on
the success of these clauses. Debian has no choice but to take specific
action: either it allows them, or it rejects them, and either is an action
with a direct effect on this. Accepting them is "prosecuting", rejecting
is "protecting", if you want.
"We don't have a position on this, so we're going to refuse to distribute
it and remain neutral" won't work.
> This all hinges on whether we consider using copyright law against
> other law "reasonable" then?
The critical question seems to be whether restricting patent enforcement
is free. I still don't see how it matters which set of laws is used to
apply a restriction, as far as DFSG-freeness goes; it's the restriction
itself that matters.
(Of course, it may be unenforcable, but that's a separate issue.)
--
Glenn Maynard
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