Re: The "Free" vs. "Non-Free" issue
On Sun, 4 Jan 2004 20:11:58 -0500, Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org> said:
>> We made a promise to users; and even called it a ``contract''. Now
>> we no longer want to keep that promise, so are we going to just
>> leave the users in the lurch, with no transition plan, no support
>> going forward? For people whoi seem to think that distributing
>> non-DFSG free software is unethical, how ethicsal is this reneging
>> on our promise?
> What part of 'We have created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our
> FTP archive for this software.' is a promise to distribute non-free
> software?
Are you not missing the context? Let me quote:
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free-software
community. We will place their interests first in our
priorities. We will support the needs of our users for operation
in many different kinds of computing environment.
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs
that don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We
have created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our FTP archive
for this software.
Thus, although non-free software isn't a part of Debian, we
support its use, and we provide infrastructure (such as our
bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free software
packages.
Now, why is it that we mention the non-free and contrib area
just after mentioning we realize our users may require software that
does not conform to the DFSG? Was it in the same category as "Great
weather we are having. Good for the crop."? Or is there an
implication that, recognizing the users need for non-free software,
we are providing valuable services to usch users, which they have
since come to depend on?
You may think that the promise inherent is the social contract
is not stated strongly enough and that we can, umm, weasel out of it,
but I think that is not quite acting in good faith.
manoj
--
God requireth not a uniformity of religion. Roger Williams
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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