Mike Goldman wrote: > Cannot the DFSG be considered in similar terms - that an arbitrary > restriction upon liberty of use must be disqualifying, yet a > restriction for the purpose of ensuring respect for life and > property may be not only allowed but in certain cases even > encouraged?
You forgot to translate the analogy back to free software :-) We do interpret the DFSG in exactly this way: a restriction that _protects freedom of software_ is allowed and encouraged. As an example, I don't think the DFSG (taken literally) has room for the GPL's requirements for distributing source code. Note that I changed your wording a bit. I think that "for the purpose of" is far too permissive; the restrictions have to actually accomplish their goal. Of course, this is hard to determine objectively, so we have to use our collective judgement. Richard Braakman
