Bug#690495: [debian-policy] Prohibit click-through licenses or disclaimers

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi Josh,

Josh Triplett wrote:

> Inspired by bug 689095, I'd like to suggest something like the following
> as an addition to Debian Policy:
>
> =====
> Software in Debian should not prompt users to explicitly agree to
> licenses, disclaimers, or terms of service in order to run that
> software.

I think we can justify this under the grounds that if a large portion
of the archive starts to imitate this feature of Transmission then it
would lead to a poor user experience.

I'm surprised that the maintainer seems to be looking for support to
raise this upstream before just asking them why the change was made,
though.  Don't most platforms' user interface guidelines discourage
unnecessary dialogs already?  Perhaps it would be possible to put the
disclaimer in the main window when there are no downloads running, so
users would have an opportunity to learn about what the law permits
that way.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan