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

[Tux99]

Quote: marc wrote on Tue, 12 October 2010 19:31

> The safest route is to offer FOSS software (they are well known and
> many 
> have had their code audited) and leave the "fringe" softs on a repo
> that 
> is left to the users' choice as install.

Marc, FOSS has nothing to do with whether a particular software infringes
on patents in some countries or not, don't confuse the COPYRIGHT license
with patents issues.

There is plenty of pure FOSS software that is infringing on some patents
(primarily in the US with their free-for-all software patent policy), in
fact given the amount of software patents granted in the US I wouldn't be
surprised if most FOSS software (actually most software, not just FOSS)
infringes some patent in the US (heck, even MS Office just got caught
infringing on some patent held by some patent-troll).

This starts from the Linux kernel all the way to apps like OOo, there is
simply no way to make a distro that is patent-safe according to US laws.

Why do you think Canonical is incorporated in the UK and not in the US?

Why do you think Novell made the patent-protection agreement with
Microsoft?

The only major commercial Linux distro that is based in US is Redhat and
that's probably only because at the time they were founded the patents
issue in the US didn't exist yet (at least not like these days).

We cannot base our distro on the ridiculous patents laws of the US, first
of all there is no legal reason to do so, and second why should users all
around the world suffer US patent laws despite they don't apply to them?

Having separate plf repos IS A MAJOR OBSTACLE for new users (and for
packagers probably too), first of all because most have no idea that these
exist and then even if they find out you need to consider all those users
on dialup for whom downloading many megabytes of replacement plf packages
is a major problem.

So again, I suggest we include all the important codecs and
drivers/firmware that help the user to have a great out-of-the-box
experience with Mageia, but we add a question during installation so the
user can decide if he wants to install them or not.

This should keep everybody happy, I don't see why this couldn't be
agreeable for you.

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