[Ichthux-devel] Penguin in the Pew Available

[Don Parris]

On Wed, 4 May 2005 14:36:31 -0300
Ben Armstrong <synergism at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 5/4/05, Don Parris <evangelinux at thefreelyproject.org> wrote:
> > I was unaware that the CC license I chose would cause this kind problem.
> > I do agree with the need to stick to principles.  Since I am not part of
> > the Debian community, I will plead ignorance as to their social
> > contract.  I am well aware of its existence, but not of the depths of
> > its contents.  (I've been a Red Hat/Mandrake/SUSE guy through most of my
> > GNU/Linux experience.);)
> 
> You needn't plead ignorance any longer unless you wish to remain in
> the dark.  I did give you a URL, and it isn't terribly difficult to
> understand once you read it. :)
> 
Thanks.  It may take me a little while, but I'll definitely get to it.

> > My complaint about the commercial aspect comes from other Christians who
> > support FOSS, but only as far as it's gratis.  Every time I bring up the
> > fact that developers *can* get paid for developing FOSS, they say
> > nothing. It's always, "I support proprietary because I support a
> > developer's right to get paid for his work".  I disagree.  I believe one
> > can get paid for developing free software.
> 
> Right.  We're on the same wavelength, then.
> 
That's a good thing. :)

> > It is a shame that the various license terms cause such aggravating
> > conflicts.  I regret that PitP 2.0 won't be able to be included with
> > Ichthux.  I am, however, glad to know that there are folks involved in
> > the Ichthux project that understand the licensing issues better than I
> > do. :)
> 
> Is it possible we could convince you to relicense some or all of your
> work under a DFSG license such as the GPL?  I understand your
> arguments about why you licensed PitP the way you did.  However,
> perhaps you could digest some useful key arguments from PitP into a
> DFSG-licensed "HOWTO" document, and list PitP itself as a resource
> there so that Ichthux users would at least benefit from the
> "non-opinion" part of the document, and be able to easily find your
> "opinion piece" if they are interested in further reading?
> 
> > But do I take that to mean that much documentation is left out of
> > Debian? Aren't a lot of the how-to's and such under the GDFL?
> 
> Yes.  The GFDL was a poor choice for this documentation.  But since
> RMS backed it, many people accepted it on his authority as being
> perfectly "free".  If you want to understand why it isn't considered
> DFSG-free, here's some reading for you:
> 
> http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.html
> 
> > I was also assuming that the book would be treated differently, because
> > books really are different.  Were I writing a simple reference work or a
> > novel, or music, I would have offered a different license.  If not, so
> > be it.
> 
> Scroll down to the end of the page cited above for Branden Robinson's
> comments on that matter.  Bruce Perens, the primary author of the
> DFSG, always intended that the *whole CD* be under the rights laid out
> in that document.  There is no provision for "different treatment" of
> some materials.  If there were an easy solution to that problem, I'm
> sure the fine minds of debian-legal would have come up with an
> alternate plan.  But they haven't, and so it looks like since the DFSG
> hasn't been fixed, Debian will lose the DFSG-licensed docs currently
> in Sarge after Sarge releases.
> 
> Ben
> 
> _______________________________________________

Hmmm.  If I get the opportunity, I'll try to follow up on this this evening.
 I *can* dual-license the book.  As far as I know, it's not too late to
reconsider the licensing altogether.  No one has purchased the book -
download or print - that I'm aware of.  I have not approved the review copy
of the printed edition either.

Which of the CC licenses meet the DFSG?  Is that covered in the docs you've
linked me to?

Don
-- 
evangelinux    GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/                   http://chaddb.sourceforge.net/
"Free software is like God's love - you can share it with anyone anytime
anywhere."