On Mon, 31 Jul 2023 01:03:01 -0400 bill-auger wrote:
> the actual code-base may not mention a single word about licensing, and even
> if
> licensed properly, the code-base could actually be under a different license
> or
> multiple licenses
i guess what i am really getting at, is that even if it is acceptable to patch
the clients per this lax approach, or if GNU hosts repos filtered on the basis
of the license metadata alone, there should still be a prominent warning about
using them, such as:
"WARNING: We make no attempt to verify the actual licenses of the software in
this repo. We simply trust the random anonymous person who initially
published them to the pip repos, as did the pip repo admins."
this weakness is worth considering, because distros and the FSD _do_ make the
effort to verify the licenses of all software (or we assume that they do) -
although the FSD now adds entries automatically from debian's database, we can
assume that someone in debian has verified the licenses at some point - im quite
sure that we can not assume so for most of these unrestricted "world-writable"
repos - i do not suppose that the FSD would want to add entries automatically
from github, based on github's license detector, or based on anything less
reliable; only to to add a warning to every page: "... but we dont _actually_
check this stuff :p" - i doubt that we should be so lax either; but we surely
should discuss it before doing it
the "filter the search feature" proposal was added with this doubt in mind; and
the assumption that a prominent warning would be supplied (eg: in the client,
upon first use) - the "maintain libre repos as a GNU project" proposal was
added with the assumption that all packages would be curated (and scrutinized)
manually, as the FSD does, not imported automatically based on the metadata
supplied by 'RandomJavascriptFan42' and her cat
"oops, did you press the 'MIT' button? - bad kitty! - oh well, it worked"
so it is important to ask: is that lax approach acceptable without a prominent
warning? - indeed, is it acceptable at all, knowing how likely the information
is to be wrong?
maybe this (finally) illustrates why i have been hesitant to do anything about
these, other than delete them? - i would really like to see these uncertainties
clarified before jumping down this rabbit hole - but again, we have no
authority here to answer those questions today - there is every indication that
this will become yet another undecided FSDG grey-area, left dangling forever;
because not a single problem discussed in the past five years has been resolved
i am done discussing these things for the sake of nothing - IIRC, the backlog of
undecided issues is already six deep - no more please - most of those are
simply due to the inability or unwillingness to decide which programs are libre
and which are not - so shall we let 'RandomJavascriptFan42' and her cat be our
authority on these _hundreds_ _of_ _thousands_ more programs - is that really a
step forward? - well maybe - right or wrong, at least they would be decisive!!!
- five years with zero resolutions is itself the worst of all the FSDG's woes -
i want to resolve all of those dangling issues before i would be confident that
this new endeavor has a chance of succeeding
most of those outstanding issues, though controversial, are themselves not
terribly important to most distros - they have all been discussed at length and
would be very easy to decide, either by a vote or by a simple (long overdue)
"yes" or "no" from the FSF - most distros would not be affected by the
resolution either way - most of those outstanding issues could be decided to my
satisfaction by a coin flip; but the ability to decide _any_ issues at all is
critical for the legitimacy of the FSDG and this work-group - lets flip some
coins then? - that methodology is not much less reliable than the TPPM metadata
- _anything_ conclusive would be a huge boon at this point
and please dont ask "what are those unresolved issues?" - i am only interested
in answering the fundamental existential question: "is it possible to decide
any FSDG issues at all, ever?" - if the answer is "yes", then id be happy to
blow the dust off of those old records and replay them - but im quite sure that
the answer is "no we can not - the old victrola, she is broken" - we just tried
to play the new hit single: "Is Bass Libre?"; and it produced nothing but noise
did i imagine that? - nah, i think you all heard it too
and the saddest part ... we have all the tools needed to fix that old victrola
and get this party rockin' again; but the landlord will not let us - this is the
lamest techno-party i have ever attended; and i am late for the door, folks :)
