The Multimedia Question

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On 7/20/07, David Nielsen <david at lovesunix.net> wrote:
> fre, 20 07 2007 kl. 00:41 -0700, skrev David Boles:
> > on 7/19/2007 11:31 PM, Karsten Wade wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2007-07-19 at 22:30 -0500, Mike McGrath wrote:
> > >
> > >> "In this article, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out why he keeps giving
> > >> money to Microsoft and Apple despite the clear advantages of Linux: the
> > >> scary legalese dialogs you have to click through
> > >
> > > Maybe a scary warning in simpletonese, like a pack of cigarettes:  "If
> > > you smoke this MP3 codec, it will eat your brane and come back for
> > > dessert."
> >
> > <lurk mode off>
> >
> > I have watched this thread, as well as many others like this, from the
> > outside. As an ordinary user and not as programmer/maintainer/developer
> > which I am not. An ordinary user point of view. Linux for a long time.
> > Fedora since FC-2.
> >
> > I do understand the Fedora FOSS policy and I do agree with it.
> >
> > But what needs to be said, once again, by an ordinary user is this.
> >
> > Be careful what you offer to provide a 'lead to' or a 'go here for this'.
> > Truly. Most, surely *not* all, of the people that want these types of
> > codecs and plugins to play, for example, mp3 music files or DVDs movies,
> > will be using these to listen to and play pirated (Bittorrent) music and
> > movies. And most, again surely not all, would be more than happy to
> > steal/violate/'call it whatever you wish' to be able to do so.
> >
> > Do you really want to promote that?
> >
> > Here I back out and put:
> >
> > <lurk mode on>
>
> Are you basically suggesting Fedora start becoming the thought police
> here. "I'm sorry sir we object morally to what _might_ be your intend as
> it _might_ be in violation with the law".
>

Under some legal considerations, yes you are required to be the
thought police. [Selling alcohol to someone who is obviously drunk and
driving is illegal in many countries. Some have it that the penalty is
the same as the drunk driving penalty: life to death. There are lots
of other laws that come up with selling of narcotics etc. And the
various anti-piracy groups have been pushing for similar rules
depending on where you are in the world].

The legal question that comes up is how one promotes a service
promoting someone to break the law. The safest route I can see is
giving the user the chance to use fluendo. If that is not possible
then this is the perfect place for the 'Ubuntu-style' sub-fork of
Fedora to occur. Someone starts a company that takes Fedora source,
and makes it Fubluna which has codecs etc included in it.


-- 
Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"