Hi,

	[This is a repost from the address I am subscribed with, and
	hence some people on the internal list shall see this as a
	duplicate. I apologize for the inconvenience]
 
         A number of developers for the Debian Project (http://www.debian.org/)

         The criteria for inclusion of a package in the project are   defined by the ``Debian Free Software Guidelines'' contained in the   ``Social Contract'' (http://www.debian.org/social_contract).  

         The initial impressions were good: The License terms at   http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/license.html makes it very clear that the   license terms are DFSG compliant.  

         The confusion arises as one tries to download the sources, and   is presented with http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/src-disclaim.html; one   is now required to agree to a legal agreement (I am not a lawyer, it   seems to be a restatement of the standard lack of warranty   clauses. However, I am not a lawyer).  

         One of the questions that arise from this is: Whom does the   NSA want this agreement from? Me, as a packager, the Debian Project,   as the distributor, or the end user of the software who is going to   install it on their machines, and may be impacted by any flaws in the   process of doing so? If indeed the end user agreement is required,   SELinux would not meet the DFSG.  

         Arguably, since the software itself is licensed under the GPL,   on may, after downloading the software, further redistribute it as   provided for by the GPL.  

         However, Debian is not in the business of not adhering to   upstream author wishes, and we would like to honour the intent, as   opposed to the letter, of the license. Given that, the simplest   process was to come to the horses mouth and ask the authors what   their intent when putting a click-through legal agreement (which may   well be binding in the state where jurisdiction lies) on the software   download? Is agreement of the end users required, or is this only for   the initial download?  

         manoj

-- 
 No animal should ever jump on the dining room furniture unless
 absolutely certain he can hold his own in conversation. Fran Lebowitz
Manoj Srivastava   <manoj.srivastava@stdc.com>    <srivasta@debian.org> 
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C

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