Offering legally licensed software as optional download for distros -- WAS: OpenGL = IP mindfield

[Bryan J. Smith]

Maurice Hilarius <maurice at harddata.com> wrote:
> I think  it is time to "throw another log on the fire"
>  ... cut ...
>    "Freespire is the first free, community-driven Linux to
>     provide the option of including proprietary drivers in
>     the core distribution."

I think the greater question of _any_ project is if its worth legally
licensing any such codecs, technologies, etc... and offering them as
an _optional_ download -- but _never_ included in the CD.  That
avoids some of the "redistribution" issue, offering a "repository"
where people _individually_ download from has agree to terms by doing
so.

Right now, Fedora has the _unofficial_/_unsanctioned_ Livna.ORG YUM
repository.  The mere fact that it exists says that a _significant_
number of Fedora users want this.  So it might be worthwhile to at
least investigate what the greater Fedora Foundation, or even Red Hat
itself, can do to ensure that end-users are _not_ installing
unlicensed software -- and maybe offer another path.

I still _strongly_ believe that Fedora Core/Extras itself should
_always_ 100% redistributable distribution.  There should _never_ be
such software included with the CD.  That _removes_ 100% of the
indemification issues.  E.g., indemification is the main reason why I
have to _confiscate_ 99% of Knoppix CDs when people bring them to
work -- because they have _unlicensed_ software.

Regardless, I think there needs to be a "click through" facility
added to YUM that allows users to agree to terms when downloading
select packages from select repositories.  That would be a nice
option that might open up Adobe, Macromedia and other vendors to
offering their own, _direct_ YUM repositories -- if YUM itself had
this facility build-in.

Just my $0.02 ...


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------
I'm a Democrat.  No wait, I'm a Republican.  Hmm,
it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with.