Re: Proposed vote on issue of the day: trademarks and free software
Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:
> 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.
Well, that's certainly blunt and honest, but it probably unfortunately
makes it clear that there's no room for discussion if your first reaction
is that negative. I don't think it's any more a head-in-sand attitude
than to expect my neighborhood association to not waste its time on
resolutions about the war in Iraq, regardless of my personal opinions on
the topic. Even if there's someone who lives in the neighborhood who's an
Iraqi veteran.
You're personalizing the position in a way that I think is inappropriate.
Debian, insofar as it has a head, is supposed to put that head to the goal
of creating a free software distribution. The individual members of
Debian are quite capable of joining multiple organizations, including ones
who specialize in making statements about free software as a concept and
tackling issues such as this one. I think it's rather unfair for you to
imply that I have my head in the sand simply because I would prefer to
have the organizations to which I belong that specialize in that sort of
thing doing that work rather than having Debian do it (poorly, since it's
not what Debian is good at).
> 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.
If you believe that the primary goal of the FSF is to write software and
they only make statements about free software as a secondary goal because
they're a major free software organization, I think you have greatly
misunderstood the mission statement and purpose of the FSF.
> 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.
I expect I'd oppose several of those as well. :)
> 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.
I think it's been challenged quite adequately without Debian trying to
jump in late.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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