Re: non-free but distributable packages and kernel firmware

[Anthony Towns]

Henning Makholm wrote:
   modified-noncommercial-redistribution
nonprofit-mod-dist
   unmodified-noncommercial-redistribution
nonprofit-dist
   unmodified-commercial-redistribution
free-dist
   all-freedoms-in-the-gfdl
fsf-free
   dfsg-freedom-of-all-runnable-programs
free-software-and-firmware
   dfsg-freedom-of-all-main-cpu-runnable-programs
free-software
There's probably also the "free-use" and "nonprofit-use" properties -- 
can I use this package without having to worry about the license, can I 
use it at home, or at work as well? Maybe:

        free-use
        free-dist
        free-local-mod / free-dist-mod
        nonprofit-use
        nonprofit-dist
        nonprofit-local-mod / nonprofit-dist-mod
        fsf-free
        osi-free
        free-software / free-software-and-firmware
I wonder if it would be worth considering a "fsf-free" component that 
offers a Packages file listing packages from non-free with the fsf-free 
tag. Something like that might be non-disruptive and make it simpler for 
the installer and users to deal with some of the more important 
alternative stances on freedom to the DFSG.

That is, list reasons why somebody might want to *accept* the package
on his machine (or his redistribution) rather than list reasons why
somebody might wanto to *exclude* it.
That's kinda kludgy for the "free-software / free-software-and-firmware" 
tags, afaics. Good for the others though, IMO. "free-dist" and 
"nonprofit-dist" are what CD distributors care about; 
free/nonprofit-{use,local-mod} is what users of non-free probably care 
about. Especially as we diverge from the FSF/OSI on things like the GFDL 
or the Affero license, and others, the fsf/osi-free tags would probably 
be useful for a variety of people too.

Cheers,
aj
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