bug#294: Confirmed, lha is non-free

[email protected] (Heather Stern)
Newsgroups gmane.linux.bbc.bugs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Per this discussion on a debian mailing list:

Linkname: Re: How to get rid of non-free packers?
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200208/msg01599.html

	wherein the querent asks if lha is truly free enough or not.
	this is clearly the middlee of the thread, but a most useful
	portion, as pointers to several variants of lha unpacker source
	are provided, including one to a truly free Amiga baseline.

the followup:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200208/msg01610.html

	is a forward verbatim of response by Tsugio (whose source is
	what's used by the debian people) stating that fully
	downloadable forms such as internet, are free, but he wants 
	to be contacted before it is used for-fee, placed in magazines,
	or distributed on CD-ROM.

	An additional link to sources is provided.

It is possible for us to request such permission and extremely likely
that he would grant it, but it is not free-as-in-freedom by any means 
and I suggest that we remove it, errr, leave it removed.  It at least 
violates Debian's DFSG in that if they have to request special
permission for CD-ROM pressings, that particular instance of permission
is debian specific.  It'd never go in main.

-* Heather Stern * Starshine Technical Services * [email protected] *-
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