Re: Proposed vote on issue of the day: trademarks and free software
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 04:51:45PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:
>
> > - I've always considered Debian to be a leading member of the Free
> > Software community; as such, I feel it is our duty to tell others when
> > we think they are straying off the path of Free Software.
>
> Personally, I'd rather that we not do this. There are other organizations
> that specialize in this (the FSF, for example), whereas Debian specializes
> in producing a distribution.
That is a head-in-sand attitude.
I'd hope the FSF actually specializes in writing software, rather than
making statements. However, writing Free Software is not possible unless
there is a healthy community around it; the FSF thus takes a leading
role and makes some statements from time to time.
I can't see why the same can't be true for Debian. Sure, our specialty
is a distribution; but we've done things in the past that go beyond
making a distribution, too, and I'd think it would be appropriate in
this case as well.
> Unless the issue directly affects us, it feels to me like a dilution
> of effort and a dilution of focus to make official project statements
> about other people's free software practices.
I wouldn't have suggested this if it was the first time.
The main thing that compelled me to make this proposal is the fact that
many people see the Mozilla project as a leading citizen of the Free
Software community. And if such a leading citizen does something, it
must be good, right?
If this kind of thing is not challenged, it might lead to a dilution of
values and a subsequent repetition of the problem within the larger
community; and that *does* directly affect us.
--
<Lo-lan-do> Home is where you have to wash the dishes.
-- #debian-devel, Freenode, 2004-09-22
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