Goodbye, Fedora

[Thomas M Steenholdt]

Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Feb 23, 2007, Thomas M Steenholdt <tmus at tmus.dk> wrote:
> 
>> Amusing or not, it does confirm that our current policy of keeping all
>> the proprietary stuff away from Fedora, is really for the best.
> 
> Just a small clarification.  Patent-encumbered doesn't mean
> proprietary.  Many of the multi-media packages that are kept out of
> Fedora *are* Free Software, but they can't be shipped from the US
> because of software patents.
> 
> Fedora actually helps weaken the software patents system by rejecting
> even such Free Software packages, and promoting Free Software
> implementations of Free Standards instead.  A wise use of the fifth
> freedom: http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/139#1
> 
> But if it weren't for legal, patent-related reasons, Fedora could
> include such packages without breaking its vow to not ship non-Free
> Software (other than policy allowing for non-Free firmware).
> 

Absolutely!

/Thomas