[arch-general] Distribution license of package information on the website?

[Hong Xu]

On 05/30/2018 02:55 PM, Guus Snijders via arch-general wrote:
> Op di 29 mei 2018 21:18 schreef Hong Xu <hong at topbug.net>:
> 
>> On 05/29/2018 10:27 AM, Giancarlo Razzolini via arch-general wrote:
>>> Em maio 29, 2018 8:27 Eli Schwartz via arch-general escreveu:
>>>>
>>>> I'm of the opinion that there cannot be a license requirement for reuse
>>>> at all, since it's not original enough, and explicitly clarify this in
>>>> https://github.com/eli-schwartz/pkgbuilds#copyright
>>>>
> 
> 
> [...]
> 
> 
> (IANAL) While every single PKGBUILD file may be trivial enough and thus
> 
> does not require a license, the aggregation of them is actually
>> significant. [...]
> 
> 
> I
>> think this can be eventually harmful for ArchLinux. For example, one can
>> host an internal mirror for ArchLinux repositories without signing
>> explicit agreement with the owner of the repository data. Even, as a
>> user, downloading repository data is a form of reproducing.
>>
> 
> Ianal either (but also not an American), I fail to see how mirroring *free*
> software can be harmful for that same free software.  It's not as if "we"
> are obliged  (by contract or law) to ensure quality or something. With OSS
> you get what you pay for; if your kitten gets eaten in the process, too
> bad...
> 
> Now, if we were talking about commercial software, that might be something
> else. But AFAIK that has no real place in our repos.
> 
> 

The harmful part is not about mirroring the software themselves, but the
metadata created by package maintainers.

Hong