[fab] Fedora as Free Software?

[Mark Webbink]

Michael,

I think if you look carefully, there are a lot of packages in Fedora
that are licensed under licenses the FSF does not believe to be Free. 
They are, however, open source.  If RMS is willing to drop his
compatibility issues around these licenses, then FEDORA could be Free. 
Until then, RMS is being inconsistent if he says, in one breath, that
these licenses are not Free but that he is still willing to call the
distribution Free even if it includes them.  But then again, when you
are a dictator, you can make any rules you want.  Patrick is right when
we say Fedora has already been FOSS.  I see little value to be gained
beyond that position.

Mark

Michael Tiemann wrote:

>On Fri, 2006-04-21 at 20:08 -0400, seth vidal wrote:
>  
>
>>>I'm wondering what you guys think about changing the tilt of Fedora from
>>>open source to free software.  Namely, saying that the license should
>>>meet the free software definition (
>>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html ) and then mentioning that
>>>OSI-certified licenses (with the exception of the Reciprocal Public
>>>License, which we're going to reevaluate) are a good list, as well as
>>>the free software licenses that are listed on the FSF website.
>>>
>>>The goal is to make Fedora a distribution that the FSF can positively
>>>endorse.  I think we're really close.  Any reason to not try to go all
>>>the way?
>>>      
>>>
>>Do we have an idea of what we would need to drop to be completely free
>>software definition compliant?
>>    
>>
>
>I think the main thing is declaring it to be free software ourselves.
>We miss the mark by not actually saying it explicitly.
>
>  
>
>>What would we lose?
>>
>>I guess a few rpm queries on license should work.
>>what licenses are we looking for?
>>    
>>
>
>I've only found one problematic license (the Reciprocal Public License),
>and I seriously doubt that license is attached to any software we
>actually ship.
>
>Now, it could be that I'm monstrously in the dark, and that we ship non-
>free drivers with Fedora, but I don't think so...
>
>M
>
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>  
>
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