Re: non-free but distributable packages and kernel firmware

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Sun, May 01, 2005 at 02:59:11PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> Sven Luther wrote:
> >   1) non-free-but-freely-distributable
> > 
> >   Which would hold all the files which are freely distributable, but fail 
> one
> >   of the freely modificable criterias of the DFSG.
> > 
> >   2) rest of non-free
> > 
> >   Which would include all but the ones in the first part, and impose some
> >   furter restriction on distribution.
> 
> This sounds entirely reasonable.  I'm not sure how much would be left for the 
> second part, though, because Debian and its entire decentralized mirror 
> network would need permission to distribute it, and how many things allow 
> that but have restrictions on redistribution?  :-/

Well, i guess the stuff like can't be on the same cdrom as some other
software, or such come into this category.

> Also, where do files with *use restrictions* ("You may not use this program to 
> spam") go?

use restrictions are the resort of the user, we can't hardly do a thing about
this.

But i think that adding an actual field describing with various tag-words the
kind of non-freeness would be a better solution to all those problems.

Now, we only need to find someone willing to go through non-free and list all
those copyright problems.

Friendly,

Sven Luther