On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 02:12:16PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote: > By comparison, how does debian protect the freedom to vote against > software patent supporters in our legislatures? That's clearly an > issue affecting free software, but we don't take specific action to > protect it.
We don't have to: nothing Debian is doing or refusing to do is affecting it. Debian's distribution or lack of distribution will have a direct impact on the success of these clauses. Debian has no choice but to take specific action: either it allows them, or it rejects them, and either is an action with a direct effect on this. Accepting them is "prosecuting", rejecting is "protecting", if you want. "We don't have a position on this, so we're going to refuse to distribute it and remain neutral" won't work. > This all hinges on whether we consider using copyright law against > other law "reasonable" then? The critical question seems to be whether restricting patent enforcement is free. I still don't see how it matters which set of laws is used to apply a restriction, as far as DFSG-freeness goes; it's the restriction itself that matters. (Of course, it may be unenforcable, but that's a separate issue.) -- Glenn Maynard
