On Thu, 02 Dec 1999 15:34:05 -0500, Erich Forler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> It seems to me, then, that we need a debian-legal-private list. I >> dunno how we'd handle subscription, etc., since obviously not all >> developers are interested in -legal issues. > >This would definitely make it easier to have open, constructive dialog, but >such >private lists fly in the face of the openness of the community to some degree >and >doesn't guarantee that the topics will stay out of the slashdot headlines.
Indeed, the Corel Linux beta 1 license was originally _faxed_ privately to individual developers, yet it ended up on Slashdot anyway. If legal documents can go from being on paper to ending up on Slashdot, I don't see what prevents an email list--even a private one--from going the same way. IMHO Slashdot is only interested in perceived irreconcilable differences between groups of geeks, and things that get mobs of geeks excited, preferably a combination of the two. Normally the traffic in debian-legal is excruciatingly boring (hey, this _is_ MHO ;-) legal discussions about the essential details that make integrating software written by two different people a living hell for the poor fool who has to integrate them. It is postings with subject lines like "Corel lawsuit" that attract Slashdot, not the calm, rational discussions of legal issues involved in licenses that makes up 90% of debian-legal traffic before the end of September, 1999. The best Slashdot repellent is boredom. Just be calm and sensible, ignore the flaming trolls, let the lawyers talk directly to each other on the list, and Slashdot will get bored and go away.
