[Savannah-hackers] The matter of GIFs

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

Loic Dachary updated me on some of the situation about discussing GIF's in
phpGroupWare, and I had a conversation this afternoon with Dan about it.

I first want to express my apologies if I failed to express the GNU stance
on GIFs clearly when Dan and I had our long discussions about whether or
not phpGroupWare would become a GNU package.  There was clearly a
miscommunication, and for that I am sorry.  (I have updated the
maintainers guide to include information about this issue so future
confusions can be averted.)

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html outlines the GNU project policy on
GIFs.  As Dan mentioned, it likely isn't patent infringement to ship GIF
files.  However, the GNU project doesn't do it so as to make people aware
of the issue of software patents, and thus we never include GIFs as part
of an official GNU package distribution.

I sympathize that the PNG files look atrocious when used for certain
things.  Many times, we at the GNU Project find that to take an ethical
stand requires real sacrifice for the ascetics that are important to us as
designers and programmers.

But in the end, it is a question of values.  Ascetics and good design are
important, but for the GNU project, the ethical principles of software
freedom have to remain more important.  For this reason, we are asking you
to stick with the GNU project and remove the GIF files from the
phpGroupWare distribution.

phpGroupWare is not the first GNU package to remove GIFs.  We went through
the same matter with GNU mailman a year ago or so.  And, you won't the be
the only ones to feel the pain of boycotting patented technology.  For a
few years now, the FSF has boycotted Amazon.com because of their
enforcement of the one-click patent
(http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html).  The FSF relies a lot on our
revenue from book sales, yet people who try to buy our in-print, popular
books from Amazon are told that the "publisher no longer has the book in
print".  That's a boldface lie by Amazon that costs us fund-raising
revenue on a daily basis.  Still, we continue to boycott.

It isn't easy to take these ethical stands, but they are at the heart of
what the GNU project is.  phpGroupWare is fast becoming one of the most
important packages in the GNU project, since savannah depends on it, and
since the FSF office staff will probably soon be using phpGroupWare for
calendaring and scheduling.

I would hate to see a disagreement about this matter to harm the
relationship between the GNU project as a whole and phpGroupWare.  I am
excited and happy to be working with you and want the relationship to
continue.  Since you've recently affiliated further as a subproject of
DotGNU, that means even more interest and integration GNU-wide with
phpGroupWare.

I realize that the phpGroupWare team has been asked to make a lot of
sacrifices for our ethics, such as back-porting to PHP3 and the
still-pending Kylix issue.  Since you develop a package of wide scope and
importance, more of these ethical issues are likely to come up here than
with other GNU packages.  You are and will continue to be asked to be
leaders for championing the ethics of the GNU project, and that means some
amount of sacrifice.

I hope that you all choose to stick with the GNU project and follow this
albeit painful policy for the sake of ethics.  I hear lots of people
adopting and talking about phpGroupWare, and I am always proud to say that
the phpGroupWare developers chose to join the GNU project.  I hope you'll
decide to continue the affiliation.

But, the choice is ultimately yours.  Think it over, and let me and Loic
know what you decide.

--
Bradley M. Kuhn, Vice President
Free Software Foundation     |  Phone: +1-617-542-5942
59 Temple Place, Suite 330   |  Fax:   +1-617-542-2652
Boston, MA 02111-1307  USA   |  Web:   http://www.gnu.org

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