Don Armstrong <d...@debian.org> writes: > On Wed, 25 Mar 2009, Ben Finney wrote: > > I think it's important for users of *all* software to have easy, > > predictably-located access to the terms under which they receive > > it. > > What's the use case? That's what I'd like to focus on first; what > debian/copyright needs to enable people to do, not how it enables > people to do it.
Use case: Alice knows that different works have different licenses. She loves free software, and applauds the DFSG for setting a threshold for the minimum freedom for works to enter Debian. On that basis, she is happy to install the Debian ‘frobnicator’ package on her system. She knows, though, that the DFSG does not define any license terms, and what she is permitted to do is defined by the specific terms of the particular work. The ‘frobnicator’ package is in a field of interest to her, and she wants to know the copyright terms that apply to the works that make up that package. She looks in the documented location for that information, ‘/usr/share/doc/frobnicator/copyright’. What actions does Alice want to perform additional to the freedoms laid out in the DFSG? That *should not matter*. If she wants to do something and the copyright information on the work has something to say about it, that information should be easily discoverable so she can know her rights. Sure, we could punt it to Alice to download the source code and hunt around herself, essentially repeating the effort done by the package maintainer. But since the package maintainer has already gone to that effort, I think it's incumbent upon them to present that information to Alice in a single, predictable location for that work, to make it easier for her to know her rights in the work. -- \ “My mother was like a sister to me, only we didn't have sex | `\ quite so often.” —Emo Philips | _o__) | Ben Finney -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
