On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:53:50 +0300 Ali Gunduz <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 3:22 AM, Alexandre Oliva<[email protected]> > wrote: > > On Aug 28, 2009, "Paul O'Malley - gnu's not unix -" > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Rubén Rodríguez Pérez wrote: > > > >>> Its problem is the absence of *explicit* permission for > >>> modifications: > > > >>> Permission is granted to all sentient beings to use this software, > >>> to make copies of it, and to distribute those copies > > > >> The four freedoms don't look like they are being challenged, or am > >> I wrong? > > > > Given that copyright prohibits modification, and the license doesn't > > grant permission for modifications, I think it's not enough for > > freedoms #1 and #3 to be respected :-( > > I used to discuss the status of gnuplot over the FSF's irc channel. > (IIRC John Sullivan was part of the discussion at one point.) The > general view seems to be that since the ability to modify and > distribute the modification is not restricted, this kind of > restriction on the form of distribution doesn't violate users' > freedom. I emailed the FSF about this when a bug was filed in gNS, reply was: " We do believe that a requirement to distribute modifications as patches is allowed in a free software license (even if it is annoying). " (extra reasoning trimmed). > I hope the similarity of these two licenses can clear the issue a > little. The question now is: Do we (currently?) distribute the changes to 9wm, 9menu, and larswm as patches (which would be ok), or are we changing the upstream source directly (which would be a problem[1]). 9wm's Debian package has no patches/ directory, which AIUI means there is no changes to the package from upstream. [1] If its the latter, we need a bug in the Debian BTS as well kk -- Karl Goetz, (Kamping_Kaiser / VK5FOSS) Debian contributor / gNewSense Maintainer http://www.kgoetz.id.au No, I won't join your social networking group
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