On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 04:11:04AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 10:19:55AM +0100, Thomas Uwe Gruettmueller wrote:
> Interpret DFSG 3 > *THAT* strictly and there wouldn't be much left *in* Debian. Just > public domain materials. We may as well just fold up shop and quit if > that's the case. > That's absolutely true. Public domain is very dangerous. During the 1970s, Unix was public domain. One day, some guys decided that Unix belonged to all, so it belonged to them, too; so they said it was their property. Next was that they copyrighted it, so it now belonged to them exclusively. They even billed some of the developers to pay big fees for using their own system (BSD in the 1980s). That was absolutely legal. So a copyright is necessary to have a legal protection. Otherwise, the wolves and pigs will eat your free packages, and even request a million dollars fee for it. The DFSG in its actual interpretation is suicide. Debian must revise it to survive and to stay free. Bernd Warken
