Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
Package: ark
Severity: serious
Justification: DFSG #4
This package has a "Suggests: rar" tag. If it has the functionality to create
rar archives via rar, this is a serious problem, because it is encouraging users
to create "trap archives" that can't be extracted with free software. I believe
this is a violation of DFSG #4 ("Our priorities are our users and free
software") since we put:
- A minority of our users (those who use rar to publish data).
before:
- The majority of our users (who can't extract the data in a pure Debian
system).
- The free software community, for which trap archive formats are seriously
detrimental.
OTOH, if this package is only using rar to extract these archives, then it'd be
better to use the unrar package instead (in that case severity of this bug
should be lowered).
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.12-1-k7
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL
set to C)
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Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
severity 340704 important severity 340705 important severity 340706 important severity 340707 important thanks Hi Robert, Sorry, I have to disagree with these bug severities; Suggests: are just not important enough in our packaging system to treat them as release-critical, regardless of what's being suggested, and it is generally considered acceptable to Suggest: non-free packages from main anyway. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.debian.org/ signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 02:41:49AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote: > > Sorry, I have to disagree with these bug severities; Suggests: are just not > important enough in our packaging system to treat them as release-critical, > regardless of what's being suggested, Hi Steve, My concern is about the rar writing support itself, not about Suggests. The Suggests tag is just an indication that either the application supports generating rar archives (or that there's a mistake, and the maintainer just mean to suggest "unrar" instead). > and it is generally considered > acceptable to Suggest: non-free packages from main anyway. Well, that's not the problem. If the application needs unrar to extract rar archives, then suggesting unrar is ok [1]. It's the fact that the application supports creating rar archives that I believe violates the DFSG. Does this explanation satisfy you? If it does, I'd like to rise the severity back to serious (I don't think it's an issue for the release, being only 4 bugs). OTOH, if you think my interpretation of DFSG is inadequate, I could try to expose it better, and we could also move this to -legal (perhaps I should have started there in first place). Thanks! [1] In fact, unrar is one of the two non-free packages whose distribution by Debian I would personaly endorse. -- Robert Millan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
* Robert Millan [Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:34:23 +0100]: > Well, that's not the problem. If the application needs unrar to extract rar > archives, then suggesting unrar is ok [1]. It's the fact that the application > supports creating rar archives that I believe violates the DFSG. > Does this explanation satisfy you? If it does, I'd like to rise the severity > back to serious (I don't think it's an issue for the release, being only 4 > bugs). > OTOH, if you think my interpretation of DFSG is inadequate, I could try to > expose it better, and we could also move this to -legal (perhaps I should have > started there in first place). Oh dear. Are you going to suggest that we move OpenOffice.org out of main 'cause it can be used to create Microsoft Word files? No em fotis. -- Adeodato Simó dato at net.com.org.es Debian Developer adeodato at debian.org We learned that the Linux load average rolls over at 1024. And we actually found this out empirically. -- H. Peter Anvin from kernel.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 01:57:17PM +0100, Adeodato Sim?? wrote: > * Robert Millan [Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:34:23 +0100]: > > > Well, that's not the problem. If the application needs unrar to extract rar > > archives, then suggesting unrar is ok [1]. It's the fact that the > > application > > supports creating rar archives that I believe violates the DFSG. > > > Does this explanation satisfy you? If it does, I'd like to rise the > > severity > > back to serious (I don't think it's an issue for the release, being only 4 > > bugs). > > > OTOH, if you think my interpretation of DFSG is inadequate, I could try to > > expose it better, and we could also move this to -legal (perhaps I should > > have > > started there in first place). > > Oh dear. Are you going to suggest that we move OpenOffice.org out of > main 'cause it can be used to create Microsoft Word files? No. Any of the files created by OOo can be opened with free software (notably, with OOo itself), so they're not a "trap". A valid analogy would be like: - In the future, we have a package of MS-Office in non-free (MS allowed us to re-distribute it, etc) - Users can create some new "trap format" with it (not unlikely, e.g. [1]) - Such format can't be opened with free software. Thus: - We'd be doing a bad service to most of our users, who use OOo/etc - We'd be harming the free software community as a whole. (both of these are infractions of DFSG #4 IMHO) [1] "There are also reports that Microsoft is planning to use patented extensions to XML as the basis for a future Word format; anyone who implements free software to read those files could be sued for patent infringement by Microsoft." from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html -- Robert Millan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#340704: rar support violates DFSG #4
On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 01:34:23PM +0100, Robert Millan wrote: > On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 02:41:49AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote: > > Sorry, I have to disagree with these bug severities; Suggests: are just not > > important enough in our packaging system to treat them as release-critical, > > regardless of what's being suggested, > My concern is about the rar writing support itself, not about Suggests. The > Suggests tag is just an indication that either the application supports > generating rar archives (or that there's a mistake, and the maintainer just > mean to suggest "unrar" instead). > > and it is generally considered > > acceptable to Suggest: non-free packages from main anyway. > Well, that's not the problem. If the application needs unrar to extract rar > archives, then suggesting unrar is ok [1]. It's the fact that the application > supports creating rar archives that I believe violates the DFSG. > Does this explanation satisfy you? If it does, I'd like to rise the severity > back to serious (I don't think it's an issue for the release, being only 4 > bugs). > OTOH, if you think my interpretation of DFSG is inadequate, I could try to > expose it better, and we could also move this to -legal (perhaps I should have > started there in first place). Yes, I still disagree with this reasoning. People of conscience may disagree on whether *preventing* the creation of files that can't be read with free software is serving the goals of the DFSG. In the absence of agreement on this point, I don't think it's right to treat this as a release-critical bug unless the *maintainer* agrees with you. Cheers, -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.debian.org/ signature.asc Description: Digital signature
