Legality of Fedora in production environment

[Josh Boyer]

On Sun, 2007-05-13 at 07:54 +0200, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 13:16 -0500, Josh Boyer wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 18:43 +0200, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 10:08 -0500, Josh Boyer wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 18:58 +0400, Dmitry Butskoy wrote:
> > > > > Josh Boyer wrote:
> > > > > > The Fedora wiki pages link to a list of all approved licenses for
> > > > > > packages.  You could systematically go through and print off each of
> > > > > > these.
> > > 
> > > > > But it is more hard for individual user to print, translate and certify.
> > > > 
> > > > I always forget about translating.  I blame it on me being a stupid US
> > > > born citizen.
> > > While we're at it: Does Fedora have a rule on a license language?
> > 
> > Not that I know of.
> > 
> > > Or conversely: Which languages does Fedora accept as valid wrt.
> > > Licenses?
> > 
> > I actually think this depends on the license itself.  E.g. you cannot
> > use a translated copy of the GPL unless it has been certified by the
> > FSF, so by default only the original English version is valid.
> > 
> > > As RH is located in the USA, I'd presume Fedora to be subject to "US
> > > courts" in case of "legal matters" and as such I'd presume US laws would
> > > prescribe "English" (and may-be Spanish - I don't know)?
> > 
> > English when it comes to "legal matters" in the US.
> So English is mandated on "legal matters" in the USA, but it's legal to
> ship products from inside of the USA (such as Fedora) with licenses in
> "foreign languages/scripts"?
> 
> > > Background: We have precedences of "Japanese-only licenses" in Fedora
> > > packages.
> > 
> > I don't see a problem with those per-se.
> Well, this might not be much of a problem if things go to court, because
> you'll probably need an official translation to a "legally valid
> language" and because such court will not necessarily be located inside
> of the USA.
> 
> But, how do you expect "arbitrary users" to be able to apply such
> licenses? You can't seriously expect any arbitrary user to speak any
> arbitrary language or read any arbitrary script.
> 
> Consider the "Russian case" having popped up in recent days on
> fedora-devel. There a user claimed having to "show all licenses of SW
> being used in a production environment to the police". While he probably
> is able to translate "English", further languages would raise an
> additional level of complications.

What exactly is your point?  That was the purpose of this whole
thread...

josh