* Måns Rullgård <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [040608 09:14]: > > Nothing at all is wrong with that, and anyone who characterizes the > > Debian Project as asserting this is wrong, and may be being deliberately > > deceptive. > > That was not what I meant to say. However, someone did suggest that > such a request would make the program non-free.
Well, placing adding requirements removes freedom from the user. Thus it can make things non-free. (Note that the author has the freedom to deny this freedom, but we have the duty to not call free what is not free). > > There is a distinction between asking for credit for one's work, and > > requiring that those who use your work pay homage to in you some > > particular way. > > Definitely. I still think a one-line mention of the author is a > rather low price for quality software. I understand that it could be > an inconvenience, but that inconvenience is for the author of the > program, not the users. Sorry, I do not seem to understand what you mean. Are you talking about some form of advertising clause or about the author who has to write his name correctly in the work? > If the author is willing to deal with it, he > should have the choice, calling anything else freedom is hypocritical > at best. ??? > If you would like to distribute a modified version, but are > unable to comply with the requirements you will simply have to refrain > from doing it. This may seen non-free, but if the program was not > even allowed to exist you would still not be able to distribute your > modifications, there being nothing to modify. Allowing the existence > of the program will give you more options, which you may or may not > choose to use. This looks like you are confused that even things beeing non-free can be more free than other things beeing non-free. > I can understand that a distribution like Debian can desire to only > include software meeting some criteria for freedom, but this is > entirely separate from the question of allowing or disallowing > software failing some of these criteria. Sorry, I cannot find any sense in this sentence. Hochachtungsvoll, Bernhard R. Link -- Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
