D1x license

[Michael A. Peters]

On Fri, 2005-04-29 at 14:08 -0400, Michael Wiktowy wrote:

> 
> There is a middle ground that would likely make everyone's life easier. 
> Ensuring clear and consistent marking of the license type in the rpm 
> package info would make non-commercial variants much easier to filter 
> out with a simple script.

Or such packages could go in rpm.livna.org.
Putting them in rpm.livna.org IMHO is a much better solution - because
there can not be scenarios where packages that are otherwise free link
against them, and thus are not distributable.

Let's say the MPEG consortium grants permission for mp3 decoding for non
commercial use (I think they actually have, or at least have stated they
will not go after people who use it for non commercial use).

Then a mp3 decoding library is written (or license on libmad changed).
That library is then used in a media player in Extras.

By not being able to distribute the mp3 decoding library, the packager
would also have to remove (or rebuild) any media players that link
against that library (much like core builds sox w/o lame and libmad).

This can become a problem if there are many such libraries and many apps
that use them.

I don't object to these kinds of packages existing, my main system is
full of them - divx, for example - closed source, free for non
commercial use, I have it installed and have software (gstreamer plugin)
linked against it, and I use it quite a bit.

But I personally feel Extras should be safe for individuals and
corporations alike to use as a source of software that truly is free.

Keeping them in rpm.livna.org means that there will not be any extras
packages that depend upon them, and it also pushes a search for truly
free packages to fill needs. For example, a company doing video work and
wants to use truly free software will use theora because the other video
codecs are in livna, not core or extras, indicating there are legal or
distribution issues with them.

rpm.livna.org is just as yummable as Extras, packages with patent or
other license issues can go there (assuming they are approved) and are
not any less available than if they were in Extras.

The only difference is that someone who burns an Extras DVD is not going
to have to look through the packages themselves, simply do not
distribute livna packages.