How non-free software is not in Debian

Posted May 25, 2006 5:37 UTC (Thu) by bignose (subscriber, #40)
In reply to: How non-free software is not in Debian by JoeBuck
Parent article: How Sun's Java got into Debian

> But if non-free is not part of Debian, then non-free cannot ship Sun's
> Java. The license clearly states that it is permission to ship Java as part
> of an operating system.

Indeed, this issue was raised on the Debian discussion lists very soon after the announcement was made -- along with many other issues revealed by a less-hasty investigation of the license terms.

> The Debian project cannot have it both ways.

Yes. I don't think Debian can legally distribute the software (from anywhere) under the current license terms.

I sincerely hope *all* free software projects will learn from this. Rushing the process of investigating license terms, to meet some externally-imposed deadline, conflicts with the trust placed in the project by its users. It's not worth risking copyright infringement just to get some shiny bauble.