On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 9:50 AM, Thomas Weber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Am Sonntag, den 24.08.2008, 21:21 +0200 schrieb Ondrej Certik: >> Hi Dirk! >> Indeed, this is very unfortunate. Another example of this is the >> Czech-English dictionary: >> >> http://packages.debian.org/en/sid/stardict-english-czech >> >> which the author assembled by inviting people over the net to help him >> put the words in over the web interface so that we have a truly "free" >> czech english dictionary, but he also use GFDL for it, so it ended up >> in Debian non-free. > > I think you didn't you look at the precise license terms, as in > stardict-english-czech-20080701/README.
Indeed. But the README says it is actually GFDL without invariant sections: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being "Založeno na projektu GNU/FDL Anglicko-Český slovník, http://slovnik.zcu.cz";, and with the Back-Cover Texts "Autoři: [200 lines follows] Is it still non-free? (the requirement of back-cover just plain sucks) > > Can anybody please explain how to publish a book with a license that > requires almost 200(!) lines of back cover text, including enlightening > author names like "ghost", "lJxSusrjgXkqxFudwV" and "h0das"? > > Frankly, this is a perfect example of why invariant sections are a > problem in real life. This thing will never be published as a book. > > Then again, this usage of the license raises another interesting > question: > If I take this dictionary and add new translations, surely my name > should appear in the back cover text as well, shouldn't it? Well, the > license doesn't allow this! Yes, it just plain sucks. I myself really like that Debian is so strict and requires even the orig tarball in main to be DFSG free. I believe though that the non-free should be as easily installable and supported as main. Because clearly not everyone cares about free/non-free too much and clearly some things from non-free are very very useful and needed. Ondrej
