Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Front page to wiki now modifiable again

[Andrew Suffield]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 10:53:48PM -0500, Aaron Bentley wrote:
> Andrew Suffield wrote:
> 
> >>True, but it's well-nigh impossible for a license to be DFSG-non-Free, 
> >>yet be Open Source.
> >>   
> >>
> >
> >Nonsense. OSI has on several occasions approved of licenses that
> >neither Debian nor the FSF considered free (I'd have to go digging to
> >remember which, but I think they're documented on the FSF's "Why we
> >don't agree with OSI" page). However, I don't believe it's possible
> >for Debian to consider a license free that the FSF would not.
> > 
> >
> I don't think it's impossible for a license to be crafted that 
> technically met the DSFG criteria, but didn't reflect the spirit of Free 
> Software.

Speaking as one of the people who regularly makes the determination of
whether a license meets the DFSG, I do. Also see
http://people.debian.org/~asuffield/wrong/dfsg_guidelines which
partially deals with this; "technically met the DSFG criteria"
indicates a misunderstanding of how the DFSG is applied. You are
thinking of the OSD, again.

> >We do *not* ascribe to the OSD. We do not agree with the decisions of
> >OSI in every case. Debian is "free software", not "open source".
> >Always has been. Your argument could equally have been written:
> >
> >"Since the Open Source Definition is indirectly[0] derived from the FSF's
> >definition of Free Software, the FSF follows the OSD".
> > 
> >
> That's not what I'm saying, though.  I'm saying if a license fails to 
> meet the DFSG, it must also fail to meet the OSD.

This is empirically incorrect. There have been licenses which OSI have
officially approved as meeting the OSD which were rejected by Debian
for not meeting the DFSG. I already said that once. I don't know where
you got this idea from.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
 `. `'                          |
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