Bug#200411: www.debian.org: confusing description of non-US sections
On Tue, Jul 08, 2003 at 02:24:25PM +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
> The "packages" page at <http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages>
> currently says:
>
> =====
> Non-US/Main and Non-US/Non-Free
> These packages cannot be exported from the USA, they are mostly
> encryption software packages, or software that is encumbered by patent
> issues. Most of them are free, but some are non-free.
> =====
>
> The point about encryption software is out of date since we can get any
> crypto software exported from the USA these days. The last sentence is
> needlessly vague.
The thread
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/debian-legal-200207/msg00029.html
documents the exact rationale for these sections. The following
patch incorporates its conclusions into the packages page.
I'd appreciate it if the readers of debian-legal would
double-check it.
--
Matt Kraai kraai@alumni.cmu.edu Debian GNU/Linux
Index: english/distrib/packages.wml
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/webwml/webwml/english/distrib/packages.wml,v
retrieving revision 1.51
diff -3 -c -p -u -r1.51 packages.wml
--- english/distrib/packages.wml 6 Feb 2003 18:12:17 -0000 1.51
+++ english/distrib/packages.wml 8 Jul 2003 04:52:18 -0000
@@ -26,10 +26,17 @@ restrictive license or legal issues. The
<dd>Packages in this area do not necessarily cost money, but have some
onerous license condition restricting use or redistribution of the
software.</dd>
- <dt><em>Non-US/Main</em> and <em>Non-US/Non-Free</em></dt>
- <dd>These packages cannot be exported from the USA, they are mostly
- encryption software packages, or software that is encumbered by
- patent issues. Most of them are free, but some are non-free.</dd>
+ <dt><em>Non-US/Main</em></em></dt>
+ <dd>Packages in this area are free themselves but cannot be
+ stored on a server in the USA because they are encumbered by
+ patent issues.</dd>
+ <dt><em>Non-US/Non-Free</em></dt>
+ <dd>Packages in this area do not necessarily cost money, but
+ have some onerous license condition restricting use or
+ redistribution of the software. They cannot be exported from
+ the USA because they are encryption software packages or they
+ cannot be stored on a server in the USA because are encumbered
+ by patent issues.</dd>
</dl></blockquote>
<p>Note that same packages might appear in several distributions, but with
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