[Clipart] Packaging and banned symbols

[Glen Turner]

Hi folks,

I was about to post a RPM .spec file for OpenClipArt
when I noticed the discussion about legislatively-
prohibited images.

To meet this requirement I'm re-working the .spec
file and I'd like to ensure it meets with your
approval before I put in too much effort.

I am now considering the following packages

   openclipart
     contains all images

   openclipart-de
     obsoletes images in the openclipart package
     that are legislatively-prohibited in Germany (DE)
     with transparent images of the same dimensions

More generically

   openclipart-COUNTRYCODE
     similarly for country with COUNTRYCODE
     (eg: au)

   openclipart-COUNTRYCODE-JURISDICTION
     similarly for JURISDICTION within COUNTRYCODE
     (eg: au-sa, where SA is the state of South Australia)

   openclipart-COUNTRYCODE-JURISDICTION-CENSORSHIPCODE
     similarly for CENSORSHIPCODE within JURISDICTION
     within COUNTRYCODE
     (eg: au-sa-pg, where PG is SA's classification Parental Guidance)

Obviously, this could be automated given appropiate
meta-data in the images (in particular, a list of
codes for which the image is outlawed).

Hopefully by substituting transparent images some
interoperability across jurisdictions is retained
(page formats are not broken, not "file not found"
errors).  I'm not convinced that this is a good idea.
Perhaps the file should just be obsoleted.

The reason for a CENSORSHIPCODE is to allow computers
in public places or schools to meet the sometimes
peculiar censorship requirements of those situations.

By obsoleting images out of the entire collection I
hope to avoid a series of huge RPMs, most containing
the same images.  It also limits the amount of meta-
data required to be maintained.

I also have a openclipart-httpd package which makes
the clipart available to web pages hosted by Apache,
by adding a configuration file to /etc/httpd/conf.d.
A definitive statement on the URL for this would
be appreciated, so that all distributions can align
allowing web content to be easily moved.  I'm proposing
"/openclipart" as the base URL.

BTW, before 1.0 please give some thought to directory
structures. Changing these in production packages is
near impossible (because it breaks documents which
reference rather than include the images, in particular
web pages).

Comments welcomed. I'd particularly like to align with
the Debian package.

As an artistically inept person I'd like to close by
saying just what a marvellous a resource you are building.

Regards,
Glen

-- 
  Glen Turner         Tel: (08) 8303 3936 or +61 8 8303 3936
  Australia's Academic & Research Network  www.aarnet.edu.au