Re: [Fsfe-uk] Re: Freedom to take freedom

[MJ Ray]

Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote: [...]
> While the end result is obviously more restrictive than the GPLv2, I
> don't think it's invalid or self-contradictory in anyway - though I'd
> love to hear other reasons why. 

I think this is about
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-fonts/packages/ttf-liberation/trunk/debian/copyright?op=file&rev=0&sc=0

As I understand it, that is a licence which says, essentially:-
- you may distribute this only if you do not add restrictions that
are not in GPLv2 (GPLv2 s6); and
- you may distribute this only if you add some restriction which
is not in GPLv2 (addition s1b - the description as an "exception" is
clearly incorrect IMO).

There is no way to satisfy both GPLv2 and the addition, so there is no
permission to distribute.  More on this:-
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2007/05/threads.html#00039

> > I didn't think additional restrictions were a problem themselves.
>
> I think they are in a couple of ways, the main ones being license
> proliferation and unintended side-effects: you can mitigate against
> those problems, but it's a sort of "guilty until proven innocent"
> situation, if you see what I mean.

OK, I agree.  They're a problem, but not a free-software-specific one.

Regards,
-- 
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