Then it must also be true that one cannot copy and then distribute, or distribute and then copy. Have you attempted to challenge them on this point? Do they have English professors at UWash, or just semioticians?
I never thought of this argument. It could be a good point to raise in a lawsuit; it might help win the suit. But the immediate issue is that distributing a modified version of the Debian package *could* get someone into a lawsuit; the copyright holders are denying that they gave permission for that.