Re: DFSG#10

[Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>]

Raul Miller wrote:
> On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 05:19:40PM +0200, Tore Anderson wrote:
> >   For Debian to be "100% Free Software", it first must be "100% Software",
> >  right?
> > 
> >   I'm entirely willing to be educated where I'm wrong.
> 
> If Debian is 100% software, does that mean developers can't be a part of
> Debian?  What about mirror servers?  What about mailing lists?  What about
> passwords?  What about licenses?  What about printed materials?  etc.
> Are these not parts of Debian?  Are they 100% software?
> 
> One issue here is that "Debian" is an adjective, and you have to dub
> in the noun.  If that noun is "Software", you get a different meaning
> than if that noun is "Copyrighted Works".  As it happens, the updated
> social contract uses the noun "System" -- a somewhat ambiguous noun,
> but to some degree that ambiguity is good because it lets us branch out
> into new things (new distributions for new architectures, most likely).

Except that you are then ignoring the clarifying text in the Social
Contract, which states:

  We promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution entirely free
  software.                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Cheers,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu