On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 06:50:50PM +0200, Martin Hardie wrote: > the differnce is guys is that Debian and free software professes to be based > upon a community and a community that believes in sharing and respect and > thus must have the guts to move beyond the inane ... no discrimination > statement ... freedom rhetoric and stand up for and make political decisions
That *is* a political statement, and it sounds like you are arguing for yourself the very strange position of being anti-racist yet pro-discrimination and anti-free speech. I support free speech. I disagree vehemently with the racists and their rhetoric, but I also vehemently support their right to say it. Perhaps one day someone will disagree vehemently with what I want to say, yet support my ability to say it, too. This is called tolerance, and it's a shame you don't have more of it. And the operating system they use to do it is completely irrelevant. Debian says "no discrimination" and WE MEAN IT. What good is a mail reader if its license only allows you to legally express opinions that the author agrees with? That's silly, and a crimp on people that are saying unpopular but correct things. > Software is politics, IP is politics, free software is blatantly political in > its anti IP posiitons ... or pretends to be ... or is it just another way of > doing business and fuck the fallout. You might notice that virtually every bit of software in Debian is copyrighted and licensed. I am not sure where you are getting the "anti IP" rhetoric from. It would be better to say "responsible IP". > We dont say you should stop him from using your software ... but you should > shun people with such views and who use the product of your community to > promote such views, you should shun them from your community..... > its is not about discrimination Pardon me, but that is *exactly* what you are saying: "We should treat people with certain views differently than other people." It doesn't take a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary to work out that this is a prime example of discrimination. Note too that the Debian Free Software Guidelines -- from which the "no discrimination" line originates -- apply to software licenses and not to actions of the Project. In other words, we have committed ourselves to distributing software that has no onerous restrictions, but we do not compel any Debian user or developer to associate with someone whom they find distasteful. In the end, freedom of association is preserved for the individual. People can make their own choices about whom they associate with, and trying to lecture some ill-defined "community" with no real boss is an exercise in futility. -- John
