Re: Re: Re: Concerns to software freedom when packaging deep-learning based appications.

Quoting Lumin (2018-07-13 18:13:26)
> > Seems you elaborated only that it is ridiculously slow so use CPUs 
> > instead of [non-free blob'ed] GPUs - not that it is *impossible to 
> > use CPUs.
> > 
> > If I am mistaken and you addressed the _possibility_ (not 
> > popularity) of reproducing/modifying/researching with CPUs, then I 
> > apologize for missing it, and as if you can please highlight the the 
> > essential part of your point.
> 
> Sorry if I didn't make my point clear.
> 
> From a technical point of view, CPU can do the same work as GPU.
> So it is definitely possible, even if it takes 100 years with CPU.
> 
> From human's point of view, a pure free software stack can do the
> same thing. But one have to wait for, say, 1 year. In this
> case, in order to make sense, one is forced to use non-free.
> 
> Based on this observation, I raised the topic in the original post,
> because the freedom to modify/reproduce a work is limited by,
> as concluded previously, license of big data, and the noticable
> time/device cost. Hence I asked people how we should deal with
> related works if some of us want to integrate such work into Debian.

Thanks for clarifying.

I believe none of the general public licenses (neither liberal nor 
copyleft) require non-rediculous cost for the freedoms protected.

I therefore believe there is no license violation, as long as the code 
is _possible_ to compile without non-free code (e.g. blobs to activate 
GPUs) - even if ridiculously expensive in either time or hardware.

We have a practical problem in distributing such code, however, if every 
package release blocks our build daemons for 100+ years.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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