Package is unsuitable for repositories

[ChrisLees]

Binary package hint: anarchism

This bug report is very simple. The package in question is "An exhaustive exploration of Anarchist theory and practice". While it may be a good document, it has nothing to do with computing and is not something that a reasonable person would search for in the Ubuntu repositories.

In addition, any businesses trialling Ubuntu are probably going to be concerned to find such a document available through Apt, because they may believe that Ubuntu is related to, or intended for use by, anarchists.

The "Anarchism" package exists in Hardy and possibly in earlier or later distributions. It should be removed from the repositories. The package has no depends or reverse-depends and its removal would not cause problems with any other package.

[Ahmad Tarek (ahmadtarek)]

I agree with you. I think it should be removed.

[Hew (hew)]

A user has to make a conscious decision to install this package; it is not installed by default. It is in the documentation section of universe, and has a clear description of what the content is about. I'm sure if you look through more packages in the repositories you will find others that may offend some users, but since Ubuntu is a free software distribution and they are not installed by default, it is made available and the choice to install is left up to the user.

This package (like most) has been inherited from Debian, and I don't believe there are any good reasons why Ubuntu wouldn't allow a package like this whereas Debian would. I think it's a bit farfetched to believe a business would get the idea that Ubuntu is intended for anarchists by looking at one package out of over 26,000 available. That's like assuming a library supports Nazi ideals because it has a copy of Mein Kampf. Ubuntu Popularity Contest shows that 953 users have this package installed, so it's not reasonable to assume that users do not want this package.

You may find http://lwn.net/Articles/113644/ an interesting article about a similar issue (which references this anarchism package as well).

I am closing this bug based on what I have discussed. Thanks for your report, and feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

Closing Invalid.

* This package complies with the licencing requirements (GNU Free Documentation licence, V1.1 or later, and/or GPL V2 or later);
* The contents are not a menace to ethics or morals;
* This package is an optional package in Universe;
* users are free to install it or not. As noted , there are no depends or rdepends on it.
* it is, anyways, publicly available in the Internet.

Lastly (but this is not really a reason) the Anarchism movement has had an important historic effect, and should still be studied by those trying to understand social evolution in moderm times.

And, of course... let's say we do it. Then someone states the (for example) the bible* packages should also be removed: after all, Ubuntu is for all, and it happens *most* of the world is not Christian. And then what?