[Ichthux-devel] Penguin in the Pew Available

[Ben Armstrong]

On 5/5/05, Don Parris <evangelinux at thefreelyproject.org> wrote:
> Well, I did notice the statement that the summary is not binding.  However,
> I also think that would be a technicality.

Licenses, unfortunately, are all about technicalities.

> I think can understand some of
> the Debian-legal folks' concerns, and hope that they have communicated these
> with Creative Commons, and that some sort of dialogue exists between the
> two. I also think some of their concerns are a little too pessimistic.

I believe they have.  I will also concede that some of their concerns
may be a little too pessimistic.  But I don't see how that can be
avoided.  If you allow a "benign" exception in one case, it can set a
precedent for future cases that are not so benign.  They need to err
on the side of being too restrictive.

> That said, I cannot see releasing a book under the terms of a software
> license.  Perhaps we'll have to settle for a link to matheteuo.org.  It is,
> after all, one of the few sites that actually links to most/all of the sites
> in the Christian FOSS community (though Ichthux has done a better job than
> others), and serves as an important portal for many who have just read PitP
> 1.0 or one of my articles.  People can learn plenty about PitP from the site
> itself.  Our portal pages include a number of useful links to the larger
> FOSS community as well.

But it would be nice to have *something* from matheteuo.org in Debian main.

> I will see what I can do to make some of the material available for
> inclusion with Ichthux.  If it is not possible, so be it.

Thanks.

By the way, although non-free material cannot be in Debian main and
therefore core Ichthux, I don't see any problem with mastering Ichthux
special edition CDs with certain material that, while it fails the
DFSG, we, as "CD vendors" consider useful (e.g. PitP, and sword
modules).  I believe other CDDs have chosen this solution.

You see, Debian doesn't actually restrict anyone from including
non-DFSG-free material with a Debian install CD.  They just choose to
draw the lines of "what's in Debian" along the DFSG.  In fact, the
social contract explictly supports users who use other non-Debian
software (and implictily data) on their Debian systems.

Ben