Re: Taking a position on anti-patent licenses (was ' Re: Bug#289856: mdnsresponder: Wrong license')
On Sun, Jan 23, 2005 at 12:32:29AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> I think that's a discussion that belongs on -project.
Probably :-)
> > So. The proposition to discuss would appear to be along the lines of:
>
> > Debian accepts that it may in certain circumstances be desirable
> > (or at least acceptable) for software licenses to limit certain
> > freedoms in order better to protect Free Software as a whole. A
> > current example of this would be the GPL, and the conditions it
> > places on distribution of derived works -- basically that they
> > must be distributed with source, under the terms of the GPL.
>
> > In the light of the threat that software patents pose to Free
> > Software, we believe that it is likewise acceptable for software
> > licenses to place conditions on the use of software patents
> > against Free Software authors and distributors.
>
> I think this is too broad of a statement to actually build a consensus
> around. Which is to say, I don't agree with it because it doesn't specify
> which "conditions" it's acceptable to place on the use of software patents.
> Saying "yes, restrictions are ok" opens the flood gates for people assuming
> that all kinds of abusive restrictions are acceptable.
The intention would be to decide which restrictions might be acceptable
once/if we decide that some might be; I think we'd have a better chance of
having a sensible discussion that way round :-)
I quite agree that that on its own would be way too broad.
Cheers,
Nick
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