Re: one of the many reasons why removing non-free is a dumb idea

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 10:58:56AM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 02:24:48PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> > I do not believe Debian should be distributing such software.  It
> > rightly fails the DFSG.  For some users (for instance, a business) it is
> > actually less free than something without source (such as Netscape 4.7).
> > The no discrimination clause in DFSG is an important one.  Debian must
> > be equally Free for all.
> 
> Why must it? We have an area that's free for all: it's called main. We
> have another area that contains stuff that's not free for all, but that
> is useful and that we're allowed to distribute. If you don't like the
> non-free stuff, then don't use it and don't maintain it.
> 
> Why do you find that solution so unacceptable that you think Debian *must*
> do something else?

As time passes, it appears to me more and more that the continued
presence of non-free is incompatible with the long-term interests of our
stated goals, users and free software.

Providing a distribution platform for non-free software seems to greatly
moderate the incentive the non-free authors would have to relicense
their software under the GPL; it seems that the areas that we have been
successful already are testament to what we have the potential to do
were we to carry an even larger carrot and stick.

We are now long past the era where technical hurdles prevented spinning
non-free off of Debian.  We have a set of people that are capable of
maintaining it by itself.  We also have a situation where non-free as
part of Debian is languishing, to the point where arguments that quality
would suffer if it is removed from Debian are, at the very least,
questionable.

In the long term, non-free software is not in the best interests of our
users.  I understand and sympathize with the need of some to use bits of
non-free software now.  I myself am in that situation periodically, and
in fact, purchased a copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 just recently :-)

This is not about trying to make users' lives more difficult; it may
well end up making their lives easier.

To me, it's about living up to our own goals, and being the great force
in favor of Free Software that we can be.

-- John