Barak Pearlmutter said: > Here is a rough outline of which I think it could look like: > Q: How do you do this? Perhaps: Q: How do you determine if a license is DFSG-Free?
(There isn't much context to figure out what "this" is) > > A: the process involves human judgment. The DFSG is an attempt to > articulate some of our criteria. But the DFSG is not a contract. This > means that if you think you found a "loophole" in the DFSG then you > don't really understand how this works. The DFSG is a, > potentially imperfect, attempt to express "freeness" in software. It > is not something whose letter we argue about. It is not a law. > Rather, it is a set of guidelines. > > Q: How can I tell if some license is free? > > A: well, the DFSG is a good start. You might also consider a few > thought experiments which we often apply. > > 1. the desert island scenario. > > Imagine someone stuck on ... impossible to fulfill ... > > 2. the Chinese Dissident. It has been suggested that this test be referred to as simply as the "Dissident" test. > > Consider a dissident in China who wishes to share a modified bit > of software with other dissidents, but does not want to reveal his > own identity as the modifier or directly reveal the > modifications to the government. Any requirement for ... > > Q: what does "no discrimination" mean? Doesn't the GPL discriminate > against companies making proprietary software? > > A: Some more examples (beyond those in the DFSG) are ... The GPL does > not discriminate against companies that want to make proprietary > software because they are given the same rights to GPLed software that > anyone else has. They just happen to also want the right to make the > software non-free. No one is given that right, so this is not > discrimination. Q: What about licenses that grant different rights to different groups? Isn't that discrimination, banned by DFSG#5/6? A: For Debian's purposes, if all the different groups can exercise their DFSG rights, it's OK if there are other people who can do more. For example, if a work were licensed under the 3-clause BSD license only to elementary school teachers, but the GPL to everyone else, it would be DFSG-Free. --Joe