[Mageia-dev] rehashing the faac issue

[Thomas Backlund]

Johnny A. Solbu skrev 2.10.2012 16:35:
> On Tuesday 02 October 2012 14:58, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
>> IMHO a package is "not free" anyway as soon as it qualifies for
>> "tainted" - whatever reason.
>
> That is subject to jurisdiction. I happen to live in a country where software patents doesn't apply. Therefore patented software is Free software in my country. And I believe that is the situation in several european countries, and other countries around the world. Even FSF and Stallman says this. If the software is not patented in "your" country, it is Free software in "your" country.
>

Well, we have repos all over the world, so we adapt then to least common 
dominator... if a software is subject to a software patent,
it ends up in /tainted regardless of what happends to be the law
in your country.

> And up until now, I've had the impression that this is the difference between the tainted and nonfree repos. And we should keep it this way.
>

It is... _any_ package with patent issues ends up in /tainted

> As to what we should do with packages that are both patented and proprietary, I seriously do not see the problem of having them in the nonfree tree.
> Patented or not, they are Nonfree software, and therefore belong in the nonfree tree. If we should further distinguish between nonfree and patented nonfree, then we should do that inside the nonfree tree.
>

That's your view.

For those that live in countries affected by software patents, they see 
it the other way, so they want it in tainted as that is the 
"problematic" part. the nonfree part does not make them break the law.

So for them "distinguish between nonfree and patented nonfree, then we 
should do that inside the tainted tree"...

--

Thomas