Suggestion for addition of packages

[Jim Cornette]

James Wilkinson wrote:
> Adayapalam Appaiah Kumaraswamy wrote:
> 
>>Also, the BSD fortune packages would be a welcome addition.
> 
> 
> Red Hat deliberately dropped this, citing legal concerns.
> 
> I can see their point. Quoting a few lines from a book is (sweeping
> generalisation here) normally considered fair use, and acceptable.
> 
> Quoting an entire work, or something which could reasonably be
> considered to be an entire work, is copyright infringement. Quoting a
> large part of a work is also illegal.
> 
> Some of the "fortunes" in the BSD package are either poems or the lyrics
> to songs. Where these are under copyright, they should not be in the
> BSD fortune file.
> 
> Then, of course, Red Hat's distributions are sold under lots of
> different legal systems, with different theories about what is legal.[1]
> And the fortune file's attributions were not always accurate (or their
> quoting, either), making it non-trivial to check who really wrote that
> quote, and whether it was really OK to use.
> 
> And getting it wrong could mean that the *whole* distribution could be
> barred from being distributed until the offending quote was excised,
> new media burnt, new packages produced, the old recalled...
> 
> Red Hat didn't need the cost or the hassle for a marginal package.
> 
> As always, I Am Not A Lawyer...
> 
> James.
> 
> [1] For example, you'd think a translation produced in 1611 would be out
> of copyright, wouldn't you? But under English law, the King James
> Version of the Bible is Crown copyright in perpetuity, despite having
> been written in 1611. A suitably long quote from the Song of Songs could
> theoretically attract the attention of the Crown's patentee: the
> Cambridge University Press, I believe.
> 
> US Constitutional scholars: that's why the "for limited times" clause
> is there.
> 


This is available from Fedora Extras. There was some discussion about 
the reasoning behind dropping the program from the distribution during 
the Phoebe beta testing period.

I enjoy the program, but one of the reasons was regarding some phrases 
within the fortunes offending some people. An example would be Science 
Fiction vs creationism. Some phrases do not bring to mind anthing 
offensive and seem innocent. To others, they may be interpreted as 
offensive.
Legal matters might have something to do with this. I believe the 
offensive nature of some fortunes and directing resources to other 
concerns was the major reason for dropping the program.

http://www.redhat.com/archives/phoebe-list/ and search for fortune there.

Jim

-- 
A hacker does for love what others would not do for money.