Re: Anton's amendment
On Fri, Feb 03, 2006 at 06:21:19PM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
>
> > I didn't mean one specific license, but the requirement of DFSG:
>
> > The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in
> > modified form _only_ if the license allows the distribution of
> > "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the
> > program at build time.
>
> > So the license may require the distribution as original_source+patch_file.
>
> Do I understand correctly that you are now arguing that the interpretation
> of the DFSG as *not* requiring permission to make arbitrary modifications
In this part of the thread we are not talking about any particular
interpretation of DFSG. We are trying to determine the exact
conditions under which the "patch clause" would make the compilation
works impossible.
> by arguing that some other hypothetical license that we've never
> seen and never had an opportunity to decide on the freeness of as a
> community *also* passes a strict literal reading of the DFSG? How
> is this at all productive?
If someone would provide us with list of licenses that Debian accepts
and that use the "patch clause", I would appreciate this.
Unfortunately the only license I could find was QPL and QPL is not
typical "patch requiring" license because it does not require patches
but accepts any technique that allows to keep the changes separate
from the original software.
> The pervailing sentiment on debian-legal (and, TTBOMK, among the ftp team)
> is *not* "if there is at least one way the license passes the letter of the
> DFSG, it must be ok for main", so I don't see how providing your own
> interpretation of the DFSG that allows a hypothetical license Debian has
> never considered to pass the patch clause really does anything to support
> your thesis.
I am not going to use any specific interpretation of DFSG. DFSG says
the license may restrict the code from being distribute in modified
form if allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code
for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. This is all I
am going to use.
Anton Zinoviev
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