Re: How free is Debian

[Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>]

On Fri, 09 Aug 2019 08:51:15 -0500
John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> wrote:

> Celejar writes:
> > It does? Here's what the "Debian Position on Software Patents" says:
> 
> > Debian will not knowingly distribute software encumbered by patents;
> > Debian contributors should not package or distribute software they know
> > to infringe a patent.
> 
> The key word is "knowingly".  If you believe that a Debian package
> infringes a patent of yours you have to speak up.

You've snipped the context. You wrote:

> statutory damages as with copyright).  Thus while there is no statutory
> exemption for personal use there is an effective one.  Illustrative is
> how Debian deals with software patents: it ignores them.

So no, Debian does not "ignore" patents. Perhaps what you meant to say
was that Debian does not take the initiative of investigating whether a
given package infringes on any patents. And I still don't see how this
is illstrative of an effective exemption for personal use.

Celejar