Coin, Quoting you from Gallery's ML:
Another thing that should be discussed is whether it's worth having a gallery3 package in the main Debian repository. The benefit of having a package in the Debian repository is the simplicity of installation via "apt-get install gallery3" Having a gallery3 package hosted outside of the main Debian repository (such as my people.debian.org repository) gets the same benefit, assuming one has configured their system to access that repository. While initially somewhat complicated, the setup is a one time cost. There are also ways to simplify the repository setup, such as a helper package.
You're not the only DD having hit a license problem, and if every (if not all) DD had created a personal repository for each package causing problem, there would be no central repository at all. Do you intend to support sid, testing, stable, and security up to old-stable by yourself in the long run? Do you really think this situation is sustainable?
Now that you have tell upstream that it is not necessary, do you think anyone of them will help you solve the licensing problem? You also forgot about the trust and security problem caused by adding any apt key like explained in your installation procedure[1]. What would happen if your GPG key is compromised?
If you want to help Debian and your users you'll have to clean this up and make up a decision. If the source code of the SWF apps cannot be provided, then i think you could provide a package with such files removed and the corresponding features deactivated. If you also want to care about the lost features, and if these files are _really_ allowed to be distributed at all, then you may package them separately in a non-free package which would enhance the free one (and provide a helper script of some sort to activate the feature if needed).
Please do not consider this mail an offensive one. I just think you made a mistake and i wanted to explain my point of view. I also think you should perfectly be able to improve the situation. Don't forget you may also ask your fellow developers for opinions and/or help on the MLs.
[1] http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery3:Installation_on_Debian -- Marc Dequènes (Duck)
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