[IAEP] [SLOBS] non-free activities on ASLO

[Martin Langhoff]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Chris Ball <cjb at laptop.org> wrote:
> Yes.  We ratified at a SLOBS meeting that non-free activities (or
> content) should *not* be hosted on ASLO, and attempted to specify
> what we mean by non-free:

I personally think it is very good that free are clearly separated
from non-free, and I think it's good strategically for all involved.

There is one aspect that will be tricky on the content side -- it is
very easy to create / release content that is in itself free, but
dependent on non-free software. Picture the well-meaning content
creator that releases a Flash interactive under a CC license (and it
uses fancy Flash10 things that are not in Gnash).

Educational content creators aren't as educated as FOSS programmers in
the vagaries and politics of patents, software licensing and all (they
are educated in other legalities, usually). We can't flame them for
being dumb, they are smart about a different set of things.

Much of their work will be what Debian would call "contrib" -- Free in
itself but depending on non-free bits.

While 'contrib' in Debian is usually not very big, if Sugar succeeds
attracting content creators, it might be a big category... at least
until the free tools mature, and the authors learn why it matters,
switch tools, etc.

It is a social process that will take a while -- I am sure there'll be
'contrib' stuff for quite a while, maybe forever.

</rambling background>

So... what about "contrib"?




m
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