Re: General Resolution: Handling of the non-free section: proposedBallot

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 11:58:25PM +0100, Michael Banck wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 11:33:56PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> > On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 01:57:35PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > > > A, yes ? And the fact that debian ressource would be used for setting
> > > > this alternative archive up and maintaining those packages is not to be
> > > > considered ? Debian ressource in the form of volunteer time, which is
> > > > maybe the only asset debian really has ? 
> > > 
> > > Volunteer time is not owned by Debian.  We have no control over
> > > volunteer time, and we cannot assign tasks to persons.  
> > 
> > But you are interfering by the time i should spend on things, in
> > particular making it more difficult for me to maintain my non-free
> > package ? A strange way of not interfering with my volunteer time.
> 
> His point is that this "time" is not time you spend on Debian, but on
> some non-free packages that happen to be distributed by Debian right
> now. So, just as Debian can not set restrictions on what you do in
> your non-Debian time, you cannot set restrictions on how Debian should
> help you with your non-Debian activities.

Sorry, but the time i spent on packaging non-free stuff, this time i
clearly see as part of the time i devote to debian. Not only does it
include the real packaging, which is but a small fraction of the global
time i devote to debian, but also some convincing and discussion work i
have with upstream to try to get the licence freed. And packaging a
non-free package puts you in a strong position to have this discussion
with upstream, and, as i can see in my case, has already proven
successfull in one of the two non-free packages i have been involved
with. Or do you seriously think i would be packaging ocaml in main
today, if i had not taken over the maintainership of that non-free
package back in 98 ? I would probably be a redhat or whatever user right
now if that would have been the case.

Friendly,

Sven Luther