[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout

[Hoyt Duff]

On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 2:44 AM, Ernest N. Wilcox Jr. <ewilcox at bex.net> wrote:
>  People who break laws are criminals - no ifs,
> ands, or buts, about it.

People who break _criminal_ laws like murder and assault are criminals.
People who break _civil_ laws like traffic or zoning are not usually
considered criminals by the general public.
So, not all laws are alike and not all people who break laws can be
reasonably labeled as criminals.

When there is dispute in the larger world community as to whether or
not some behavior rises to a criminal nature, one cannot assign it
some moral value and enforce it world-wide with any significance.

> If the Mageia community chooses to opeate as a
> criminal organization, I will have nothing to do with it.

Based on the  popular (in the US, at least) maxim of "Ignorance of the
law is no excuse", you as end user are responsible for knowing the
license of the software and acting accordingly. Just because "illegal"
software is available does not mean you are compelled to use it. If
you install software which is permitted in one country but not in
yours, you would be the "criminal". Legally and morally, you cannot
pass on the responsibility of obeying any law to someone else. You
alone have the responsibility for obeying your laws.

In other words, if the taint is available to you, and you believe to
touch the taint is bad, don't do it. But don't force others to follow
your rules.

The PLF approach has been a good one because it allows the specific
option of touching the taint or not while accepting the official
distro defaults.

-- 
Hoyt