On Mon, Oct 04, 1999 at 04:42:59PM -0700, Eric G . Miller wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 04, 1999 at 06:03:37PM -0400, B. Szyszka wrote:
> > Is there any particular reason why the Debian and/or KDE mirror sites
> > don't offer the apt sources? Getting at least half of the KDE mirrors out
> > there to mirror the apt sources would be heaven. Gnome has a buttload
> > of apt sources, why can't KDE?
> Debian folk have determined that the QT license is incompatible with
> the GPL. Hence, KDE stuff is bound to a non-free license... I'm not
> sure it makes a lot of sense considering the other "non-free" software
> that is distributed...
The non-freeness isn't such an issue as the fact that the restrictions
in the GPL make it illegal to distribute KDE binaries. You're not
allowed to combine code under the GPL with code under a more restrictive
license (such as the QT one) and distribute the results. The chances of
anyone trying to sue because of KDE are minimal, but since pretty much
all Debian resources are donated and we encourage third parties to sell
and distribute our stuff it is felt that paranoia is the best policy.
As to why KDE don't provide mirror space for Debian packages, I don't
know. It could be political, although that is completely uninformed
speculation.
--
Mark Brown mailto:broonie@tardis.ed.ac.uk (Trying to avoid grumpiness)
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~broonie/
EUFS http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/
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