[OT] Re: Free Oracle database now on general release

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Thu, Mar 02, 2006 at 23:32:44 -0600,
  "Christofer C. Bell" <christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/2/06, Bruno Wolff III <bruno at wolff.to> wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 02, 2006 at 20:17:18 -0600,
> >   "Christofer C. Bell" <christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > You mean like the Livna Project?  Fedora doesn't include any
> > > proprietray software in the main distribution, but you're going to
> > > look silly saying that the community (and especially Red Hat, Inc.)
> > > doesn't approve of the use of proprietary software on their operating
> > > systems.
> >
> > The stuff I get from Livna isn't propietary. The stuff is patented which
> > causes problems for distribution in the US.
> 
> pro·pri·e·tar·y   Audio pronunciation of "proprietary" ( P ) 
> Pronunciation Key  (pr-pr-tr)
> adj.

Oops.

> 
>    1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of a proprietor or to proprietors
> as a group: had proprietary rights; behaved with a proprietary air in
> his friend's house.
>    2. Exclusively owned; private: a proprietary hospital.
>    3. Owned by a private individual or corporation under a trademark
> or patent: a proprietary drug.
> 
> 
> Definintion number 3 is the relavent one.

Except that US patents don't apply everywhere and the software itself
is free. So, except in the Land of the Corporation it would be silly to call
that software proprietary. And I don't think the term even applies there
since so many people in the world can use the software completely legally.
This doesn't apply to the NVidea driver stuff, but I originally didn't think
of that, since the stuff at Livna I am interested in is  audio and video
codecs and DeCSS.