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Re: What RMS says about standards (was: [rms@gnu.org: Re: Questions regarding free documentation.]



Hi,
>>"Ian" == Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

 Ian> Can someone please run by me again why they think we need a new
 Ian> category `verbatim' or whatever alongside main, contrib, non-free ?

	There were two reasons given.
 a) Even if we agree to keeping the immutable documents as part of
    Debian, there is merit in having a main distribution where
    everything is modifiable; verbatim contains things that are
    not. People can then play with everything in main without needing
    to worry about licenses

 b) Even if we do not like verbatim documents well enough to make them
    part of main, they are not as damaging to the software community
    as prpreitary software is; verbatim recognizes the distinction
    (based partly on the fact that the entities we are talking about
    are not software).
	

 Ian> I agree strongly with whoever it was that said that this was just
 Ian> trying to duck the issue.  Either we are happy with a particular kind
 Ian> of documentation being more restricted than DFSG-free or we are not.

	And I think there are more options that two to some
 questions. The world is not just black and white, and I see no reason
 that we can't say "we prefer free licenses and standards, but we do
 allow license and standards that do not allow derivatives in the
 distribution. The verbatim distribution emphasises this distinction".

 Ian> If we are happy with this then it should go in main.  If we are not
 Ian> then it should go in non-free.

	And I think we need step out of binary mode of thought.

	manoj
-- 
 Any time things appear to be going better, you have overlooked
 something.
Manoj Srivastava  <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E


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