Re: Debian's job is not to help people who think the world is unfair

["Giacomo A. Catenazzi" <cate@cateee.net>]

Jurij Smakov wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 06:17:45PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> > also sprach Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org> [2008.11.26.1807 +0100]:
> > > And no, it's not Debian's flaw or problem - but Wolfgang's
> > > complaint is IMHO very well in place. It will reach the clueless
> > > HR recruiter, and -as he posted to -jobs- probably other HR people
> > > pondering on writing to Debian.
> > This is precisely my problem, it comes across as a statement from
> > Debian, when in fact it is the voice of a few people (who seem to
> > have little idea about HR and running a business). This is why
> > I replied on -jobs, because Debian does *not* have any policy
> > preventing or allowing job offers with age restrictions.
>
> You are correct, we don't have such a policy in place. However, one of
> our foundation documents (which I'm reasonably proud of) claims that 
> we will not accept any software with license which discriminates 
> "against any person or group of persons" into the distribution. Yes, 
> it's a stretch, because we can be fairly sure that people (as opposed 
> to firmware :-) are not software, and they don't have a license. I, 
> however, have a difficulty understanding the mindset of people who 
> can, at the same time, stand behind these principles, and be 
> comfortable with what looks to me as a clear-cut example of unfair 
> age discrimination (thanks to Ben for suggesting the correct wording).

I see our foundation document (which I'm also reasonably proud of) with
completely contrary view.

We cannot accept licenses that:
- forbid usage for hostile (war) purposes
- forbid software to unfair governments.
(IIRC these two was the standard explanation of that point in DFSG)

so we explicitly allow unfair use of our software. Our mailing list
are different? We should not support SELinux (or discuss with NSA people)
because it was created by NSA?

PS: For the job position I've two comment:
- google ask people to leave home for 3 months (learning in silicon valley). This
is discrimination of fathers or mothers?

- Usually the age limit is not an hard limit, but it means:
you could learn a lot, we don't require lot of experience, but we will pay
you at lower scale. I think other non-discriminatory formulation should be prefered,
but ... we are technical people, not fluent English writer.

ciao
	cate