On Thu, 03 Feb 2005, Sam Watkins wrote: > On Sat, Jan 29, 2005 at 07:59:14AM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > > The average girl would rather have beauty than brains because she > > knows that the average man can see much better than he can think. > > Ladies' Home Journal > > Your sig quote seems strangely appropriate to this thread, Ron.
Unfortunately few people seem to understand these points. They have probably been participating in too much religion. 1. People (including children) will get a nasty surprise when they choose to download all the packages to see what is available. [...] 2. Should Debian publish content I disagree with which is DFSG free? I say "no". There are limits to what is acceptable in Debian. The anarchist FAQ is acceptable. pr0n is acceptable. The bible is obviously not acceptable, Supposing I were to assemble a collection of public-domain relgious materials, would that be allowed to be included in Debian? I hope not. Apart from anything else, we wouldn't be able to distribute the CDs freely. I don't see "bhagavad vita" in sid yet, either. I seriously doubt that "belief: 1001 ways to subjugate your populace" would be approved for inclusion either. That probably wouldn't be legal to distribute to thinking adults either. (If it did, it would be illegal to sell them from ordinary shops in many parts of the world, e.g. Iran.) [...] Firefox without a doubt falls in that category (it is a program for downloading religious materials). It should not be in Debian. This is also NOT an issue of censorship, nor is it a question of trying to protect children. Obviously any child or adult who wants religious materials can get them off the internet. The difficulty in modern society is for anyone who wants to avoid religion, one would have to walk around with eyes shut, ears closed, and expunge a good number of neurons. It is an issue of Debian's public reputation, and of the law. Does Debian wish to be associated with religion, to implicitly approve of it, by including programs designed to download and view it, or including actual religious content? Ah, ad hominem and unfounded assumptions, how I love thee! Don Armstrong -- It seems intuitively obvious to me, which means that it might be wrong -- Chris Torek http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
