Hi, I saw the swift reaction on bug #276302: [Sun License for JavaCC] which has been an issue for years (upstream claims it is free software under a modern bsd license, but some files had additional restriction). Getting a real answer, an acknowledgment that this is a problem with regard to the DFSG and a solution to the problem makes it now possible to package this package for Debian main. So I send a "Thanks!" to some people at Sun for their handling of this issue. They reminded me that Sun has an "ombudsman" that is responsible for solving these kinds of issues the free software community might have with software Sun distributes.
In the past a lot of people (me included) have been pretty skeptical about Sun's motives and their effectiveness with regard to understanding and handling community issues. But since their OpenJDK initiative, they have been engaging and interacting with the existing libre java communities (GNU Classpath, gcj, kaffe & friends), acknowledging that cooperation is the way forward. They do seem genuine in their efforts cleaning ship with respect to their GPL Java initiative and java packages Sun creates on top of that. Because I know Simon Phipps, who coordinated a lot between the communities with respect to the launch of OpenJDK, is the person currently monitoring and handling [EMAIL PROTECTED], I would like to encourage people to email him whenever they spot things like the "nuclear clause" in packages from Sun which prevent them going into main. Even if those issues have been open for years without a clear path to a solution. Especially with regard to their java-packages Sun really is spring-cleaning now. So make the best of it! :) Cheers, Mark -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
