FE-Legal bugzilla tickets

[Tom 'spot' Callaway]

On Sat, 2006-10-14 at 13:10 -0500, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> >>>>> "TC" == Tom Callaway <Tom> writes:
> 
> TC> If it is a licensing issue, I'd be happy to eyeball it and see if
> TC> it can't be solved by me without wasting lawyer time (or wasting
> TC> packager time waiting for a lawyer).
> 
> Here's an executive summary of the open bugs blocking FE-Legal (damn
> case-sensitive bugzilla alias lookup).  There are indeed a few
> licensing issues, and a couple of questions about parsing non-patented
> container formats containing data in some patented format.  Which
> seems obviously OK to me, as otherwise we couldn't package tar or zip.
> 
> 177134 - mkvtoolnix - deals with encoded data in a specific container
>   format, but does not encode or decode actual data stored within that
>   container (see comment #2).
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=177134#c2

Searching the US Patent Office for "demultiplexing" (aka, demuxing)
brings up way too many hits for me to comfortably judge this one. Needs
to be looked at by RHAT Legal.

> 178162 - libgeotiff - the data file included in the package has a
>   licensing issue (see comment #2)
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=178162#c2

IMHO, this is a blocker.

> 190144 - hevea - the documentation has a licensing issue (see comment
>   #7).
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=190144#c7

Asked the FSF for clarification.

> 190343 - VDR - deals with MPEG data from an external source (hardware),
>   but neither encodes nor decodes it (see comment #10).
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=190343#c10

Should be fine. Lifted FE-Legal.

> 191036 - libmp4v2 - parses the mp4 container format.  Does not decode
>   actual data stored in the container.
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=191036

Without the codec functionality, and with the id3lib precedence, I think
this is OK. Lifted FE-Legal.

> 204166 - xeuphoric - emulator with copyrighted ROMs included.
>   Submitter indicates that all copyrights have lapsed with no
>   successor.
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=204166

Ancient ROMS from long dead companies, maintainer has proven (and I
verified) that no one owns or is enforcing copyrights in this specific
case. Lifted FE-Legal.

> 205798 - xine-lib - patented stuff has already been stripped from the
>   submitted tarball.
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=205798

All good except the liba52 code (not built, but still in tarball).
Lifted FE-Legal.

> 205955 - gdal - same problem as libgeotiff, except that unlike
>   libgeotiff, this package actually needs the data to be useful.
>   http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=205955

Same blocker as libgeotiff.

~spot
-- 
Tom "spot" Callaway || Red Hat || Fedora || Aurora || GPG ID: 93054260

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always
that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence
and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We
will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in
our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended
from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to
associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular."
-- Edward R. Murrow, March 9, 1954