Policy Statement
1)Debian will not knowingly distribute software encumbered by
patents; Debian contributors should not package or distribute
software they know to infringe a patent.
2)Debian will not accept a patent license that is inconsistent
with the Debian Social Contract or Debian Free Software
Guidelines.
3)Unless communications related to patents are subject to
attorney-client privilege, community members may be forced to
produce them in a lawsuit. Also, patent concerns expressed
publicly may turn out to be unfounded but create a good deal
of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the meantime. Therefore,
please refrain from posting patent concerns publicly or
discussing patents outside of communication with legal
counsel, where they are subject to attorney-client privilege.
This is very confusing. I have some ideas in my head that
I am thinking about patenting, but I only want to torture the
proprietary software people with it. I would certainly license all
free software and free software users.
But according to 1) that would not do any good, because 1) read
literally means that if software is patented at all and software
infringes on a claim, debian will have nothing to do with it.
But 2) read conversely, implies that there could be a patent license
that debian will accept.
After all, if debian accepted absolutely no patent licenses, the clause
about inconsistant with the DSC or DFSG would be unnecessary, and 2)
would read:
"Debian will accept no patent licenses."
So what would a patent license consistant with DSC and DFSG look like?
And what good would it do? 1) read literally means that if software
infringes on the claims of a patent debian would have nothing to
do with it, consistant license be damned.
It is all very confusing.
And 3 means I can't even ask anyone about this confusion.
Can anybody clarify? 3) says not.
--
Paul Elliott 1(512)837-1096
pelli...@blackpatchpanel.com PMB 181, 11900 Metric Blvd Suite J
http://www.free.blackpatchpanel.com/pme/ Austin TX 78758-3117
---
"Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one
of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint
security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways
around it." Edward Snowden
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