>>>>> "Richard" == Richard Stallman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Richard> I think that the best basic policy is that a package can
Richard> go in `main' if it doesn't require any non-free software
Richard> *on your machine*. Making use of non-free software on
Richard> another machine is unfortunate but does not put you in
Richard> the same moral dilemma as having it on your own machine.
This is an excellent basic policy, but how far does the definition of
"software *on your machine*" extend?
Are ROM images, which are required for Macintosh, Commodore 64, and
other emulators, software? There's generally no source code available
for those beasties. But you're required to have them *on your machine*
in order to have the emulators work.
Is this any different than, say, LILO only being able to run on a
machine with a non-free BIOS? You have to legally purchase the BIOS,
for which no source code is available, before you can use LILO (or
Linux, for that matter!) -- does this make LILO non-free?
To complicate matters, it's *possible* to buy a hardware card for a
standard IBM-compatible PC with the Macintosh ROMs on it. Does this
make a DFSG-free Macintosh emulator go into main? contrib? non-free?
Ben
--
Brought to you by the letters K and D and the number 1.
"A yonker is a young man."
Debian GNU/Linux maintainer of Gimp and GTK+ -- http://www.debian.org/
I'm on FurryMUCK as Che, and EFNet/Open Projects IRC as Che_Fox.
