[Mageia-dev] Mageia repository sections, licenses, restrictions, firmware etc

[Tux99]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:

> As mirror maintainer/owner of Mandriva Linux and future Mageia
> (ftp.mandrivauser.de) I discussed this problem with my friends and we
> decided not to mirror PLF although a German university does
> (ftp.gwdg.de). The point is that our mirror is hosted on a private
> server where just one person is liable (me, unfortunately). But we
> also decided to mirror the non-free branch of Mandriva Linux. There is
> non-free and there is patented and/or legally unclear software - we
> will definitely stay away from the latter when mirroring Mageia.
> Making a difference between such software on the parent mirror will
> make it easy for mirrors such as ours. Distributing such software in
> the same branches as "normal" software will make it impossible to
> mirror Mageia.

wobo, I perfectly understand your reasons especially since as you say 
the server is privately owned by you, not an association or a company.

OTOH I think your worry is unfounded, the patent issues are mostly US 
issues, not so much European issues.

Also separating out packages will be very difficult (I would say 
impossible) since not even lawyers can know for sure which software has 
patent issues and which one not.
It's not just a problem with codecs, ANY software could have patent 
issues (in the US at least).

For example Microsoft is claiming that the Linux kernel is in breach of 
several patents help by Microsoft.

Do you want to not mirror the kernel?