Problem with .deb packages

[grauzone]

Jason House wrote:
> grauzone Wrote:
> 
>> Daniel Keep wrote:
>>> grauzone wrote:
>>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> Now the irony is, that Wlater wouldn't even allow Debian to redistribute
>>>> a properly packaged dmd... (if Debian wanted to)
>>> Speak ye of the evil Wizard Wlater, previous servant of the dark empire
>>> of Sym'n'tek?  :3
>> Oops.
>>
>>> As for the distribution problem, I think it's because Walter *can't*
>>> allow it to be freely redistributed.
>> Why not? It can't be for license reasons?
> 
> Sadly, that's exactly why. The backend is under restrictions Walter can't control. For a sillier example, there's a disclaimer that the code is not intended to work after 1999.

Is that really so? I would have guessed that this restriction is only 
for redistributing the backend source. I mean, when dmd still came 
without the backend source, it was shipped without the backend license.