On Saturday 11 June 2005 01:29 pm, Joe Smith wrote: > """ > Consider a dissident in a totalitarian state who wishes to share a modified > bit of software with fellow dissidents, but does not wish to reveal the > identity of the modifier, or directly reveal the modifications themselves, > or even possession of the program, to the government. Any requirement for > sending source modifications to anyone other than the recipient of the > modified binary---in fact any forced distribution at all, beyond giving > source to those who receive a copy of the binary---would put the dissident > in danger. For Debian to consider software free it must not require any > such excess distribution. > """ > > The tests are not official but if they are failed it seems wrong to call > the package free. Remember that the the G is DFSG is 'Guidelines'. Even if > the package meets the guidelines it may contain clauses that prevent the > package from being free. For example if a licence requires you to sing > loudly and/or stand on your head while distributing the software, (assuming > that those examples do not somehow the guidelines) it would clearly be > non-free. And debian would be unable to distribute it.
Huh... That's an interesting position for Debian to take. While in principle I agree that it is certainly preferred to not require disclosure of modifications, I don't find any grounds in the DFSG that indicate such a policy stance. One could certainly envision a GPL that required disclosure without distribution, and I'm willing to bet it was seriously considered at the time of its drafting. I understand that the 'G' in DFSG provides some flexability, but can you point to the particular clause that you feel hints at this sort of a requirement/prohibition? Thanks, Sean -- Sean Kellogg 2nd Year - University of Washington School of Law GPSS Senator - Student Bar Association Editor-at-Large - National ACS Blog [http://www.acsblog.org] w: http://probonogeek.blogspot.com So, let go �...Jump in � ...Oh well, what you waiting for? � �...it's all right � � ...'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
