Hi Ludovic and Marius, Ludovic Courtès <l...@gnu.org> writes:
> Marius Bakke <mar...@gnu.org> skribis: > >> So the million dollar question ... are these files okay to use for Guix? >> >> In my (non-lawyer) opinion, I have faith that Poppler developers would >> not distribute files that are not freely redistributable, and that this >> counts as "non-functional data" per FSDG guidelines: >> >> https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html >> >> However, we failed to reach a consensus on #guix[0]. What do others >> around here think? Should we play it safe and disable Poppler tests? >> Raise the issue with FSF? Something else? > > IANAL, but… I would argue that these PDFs are “non-functional” in the > sense that they do not have any impact on the functionality of Poppler. I'm inclined to agree that the PDFs in Poppler's test suite are "non-functional" for purposes of the FSDG. However, even for non-functional works, the FSDG requires that the license must allow copying and redistribution, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Here's the relevant text from the FSDG: Non-functional Data Data that isn't functional, that doesn't do a practical job, is more of an adornment to the system's software than a part of it. Thus, we don't insist on the free license criteria for non-functional data. It can be included in a free system distribution as long as its license gives you permission to copy and redistribute, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. For example, [...] <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html> IANAL, but it seems fairly clear to me that the CC BY-NC-ND license does *not* permit copying and redistribution for commercial purposes. Specifically, section 4 paragraph 2 says: You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. <https://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode> Note that section 3 is where permission to copy and redistribute is granted. Therefore, I think that in order to comply with the FSDG, we should use a snippet to remove any files covered by the CC BY-NC-ND license. What do you think? Thank you, Marius, for bringing this to our attention. Regards, Mark -- Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.
