--On Fri, Jun 5, 1998 3:26 pm +0200 "Marcus Brinkmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Hello! > > This is thereply I got from RMS about the copyright freeness issue. > > I think it is clear that we should lay the license freeness issue ad acta. > Debian should include all licenses in whole, and the dfsg should not exactly > apply to them. > > Note that we require the dfsg-freeness for the benefit of the free software > community. It is a catalog of the minimum rights we need to improve software > even without the authors agreement. > > We have no real benefit of dfsg-free licenses. > > Comments? > I don't really agree in principle, but I agree that in practice this is what we should do. But I have to say, RMS isn't making much sense to me.. > [Marcus asked:] > It seems to imply, that I'm not allowed to derive a new license, using > portions of the GPL (even when changing the name). Is that correct? [RMS wrote:] > > Yes and no. There is a legal principle (in the US at least) that > copyright cannot restrict what license terms you use. So if you want > a license which has legal wording somewhat similar to the GNU GPL, but > somewhat different, you can write one. > > However, it shouldn't be similar to the GPL in other respects; only in > the actual legal wording that implements the desired effect. Am I the only one who fails to see what this is trying to say? Is he saying that I can't write my own license like the GPL, but I *can* steal words from it? Huh? 'it shouldn't be similar to the GPL in other respects'? In what respects does RMS not want my (theoretical) new license to be like the GPL? This is probably not important for hamm. But we need a clarification of this somewhere (maybe as an addendum to the DFSG itself). What is software? When we had his argument a couple of weeks ago, I was told that it was not possible to draw a line between software and documentation, and therefore that 'non-free' documentation *was* a problem. I draw your attention to perlfaq and FSSTND.. Jules /----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\ | Jelibean aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 6 Evelyn Rd | | Jules aka | | Richmond, Surrey | | Julian Bean | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TW9 2TF *UK* | +----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+ | War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left. | | When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy. | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
