Re: software distribution criteria -- The OpenBSD case

[John Darrington]

On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 11:21:11AM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:

     Making this less abstract: is mentioning non-free software OK if you
     also state that the software is non-free/unethical, especially if that
     software already has a high profile?  Or is it necessary to state the
     reasons why it is non-free software each time it is mentioned?

There is no magic answer for this.  Every time you mention an item of
non-free software, that gives it free publicity.  That is a negative
thing.  If however, at the same time, you raise public awareness about
an important, and hiterto little known ethical problem, then that is a
positive thing.  The question you have to ask, is "Do the positives
outweigh the negatives?"   The answer has to be decided on a
case-by-case basis.

     I ask this because I think we now have both nearly all the reasons
     (due to research done during the non-free removal votes and subsequent
     package evaluations) and the technical capability (due to debtags) to
     state the reasons why a piece of non-free software tracked by debian
     is non-free, every time it is mentioned by debian web sites and debian
     package management tools.  Filling in the gaps and connecting those
     two data sets (reasons and package data) would not be difficult, but
     I've not really tried to promote doing that because I dislike spending
     time working on non-free software.  If it would make FS supporters
     happier with debian if it stated the reasons, instead of just
     displaying the big red "non-free" label, I would work on it.


It might be useful to have such a database for the sole reason that it
could help people turn individual programs into free software, either by
removing non-free bits, or by lobbying the copyright holders to fix
the offending licence clauses.

     
     So is linking also a problem?  Why?  Not linking a project is not
     usually a significant barrier to finding it.  For example, in
     Iceweasel, you just highlight the word, right-click and select "Search
     Web for..." IIRC and you'll find most software fairly easily.


Perhaps it is easy to find them.  But that doesn't excuse anyone
promoting them;  After all, you don't have to look far to find illicit drugs, 
but
that doesn't justify promoting the drug pushers.



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