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Re: Not inherently free, but inherently non-free?



Milan Zamazal wrote:

"HM" == Humberto Massa <humberto.massa@almg.gov.br> writes:
    HM>   2. restricts redistribution (in a DRM'd medium): DFSG#1
DFSG#1:

     The license of a Debian component may not restrict any party from
     selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate
     software distribution containing programs from several different
     sources. The license may not require a royalty or other fee for
     such sale.

Why does this state the license must permit distribution on a DRM
medium?

Surely it's implicit in 'may not restrict any party' that the licensed work must be distributable in any form the distributor chooses? As it stands, GFDL works cannot be distributed at all on DRM media and therefore if the distributor puts (for example) paragraphs from a GFDL manual in spoken form on a CSS, Region-coded DVD, he is restricted from distributing this DVD, which is an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources (If you take documentation to be software, which AFAIK, Debian does).

Said example DVD is non-distributable (thus breaks DFSG #1) because of clause 2 of the GFDL, thus clause 2 of the GFDL can in some situations break DFSG #1, thus GFDL is in some situations non-free.

To be Free, a license must not be non-free in any situation, thus GFDL is not Free.


--
Lewis Jardine
IANAL, IANADD



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