* David N. Welton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2004-03-02 22:51]: > Another thing that would be useful to add to all questions of this > type is something along the lines of "and as DPL, do you think you > can do anything about it, or plan to?" to hear whether the > candidates plan to do anything either personally or as DPL about any > particular issue.
I absolutely think we can and should try to do something about this. In fact, in the case of the GFDL, I had various discussions with Bradley Kuhn (Vice-President of the FSF) and later helped creating a committee which discusses these issues with the FSF. There were some conference calls and one meeting IRL, and we are currently waiting for the FSF to post an update - everything has unfortunately been delayed because RMS broke his arm a while ago. However, Don Armstrong and Mako Hill (who represent Debian in this matter) are in close with Eben Moglen, the FSF lawyer. In general, I think that Debian has the responsibility to approach other people if their software or documentation license is non-free and to explain why this is bad (Of course, it is their right to create software or licenses which don't comply with out DFSG, but we should at least point out why we think it is important for software to be free according to the DFSG). My approach with regards to the GFDL is outlined in detail in http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2003/debian-project-200310/msg00117.html and some thoughts about being more proactive with regards to non-free license can be found in http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/debian-legal-200402/msg00117.html (plus follow-ups). -- Martin Michlmayr [EMAIL PROTECTED]