Non FOSS and Fedora

[Rui Miguel Seabra]

On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 09:50, Colin Charles wrote:
> Think about it this way. If you used absolutely "free" software, you
> can't even play MP3's. Fedora by itself doesn't include the mp3 stuff.
> Why? Because its non-FOSS.

It is non-Free Software because of software patents and not because of
the wish of the author of such programs.

USA, UK and Japanese based distributions suffer from that problem and
have to stop distributing MP3, even though the players are Free
Software, software patents make them unauthorized copies.

The best solution is to fight software patents.

For the rest of the Free World, mpg123 and many others remain Free
Software.

> I know linux geeks love their .ogg, but stuff you get out of Kazaa and
> the rest of the world (90% of pirated stuff?) would be an mp3.

100% of pirated stuff is: real physical goods (effective property) and
people getting killed and maimed.

With unauthorized copies there's none of that, so it is not piracy.
That's a term abusively applied since the 80's to unauthorized copies in
order to make people perceive that it is a matter of their actions
instead of perceiving that it is a matter of the owners of copyright not
authorizing their copies.

If people thought about this in a generalized form, a massive revolt
against RIAA, MPAA and alike would happen (oh wait... they can't really
stop people who are rebelling right now by sharing their copies without
imposing a fascist police-state).

Rui

-- 
+ No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown
+ Whatever you do will be insignificant,
| but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi
+ So let's do it...?

Please AVOID sending me WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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