Wording of Legal Issues myth

[Patrick Barnes]

Patrick Barnes wrote:

>Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On Sat, 2005-08-20 at 23:54 -0500, Patrick Barnes wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>The only real problem with those new changes is that ForbiddenItems does
>>>not and will not point users to other third-party plugins.  The
>>>technologies it refers to are part of Fedora Core and Extras, and it
>>>will not point to sources for proprietary plugins.  It only makes a
>>>vague reference to using Google.  That last bit of your changes will
>>>only serve to mislead users who may already be frustrated.  Because of
>>>this, I will remove that small bit. 
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>There's both the bit about google and the bit about checking
>>fedorafaq.org.  IMHO we have to address the fact that people may need to
>>use a specific format rather than an alternate.  To do that we have to
>>let them know that they can install plugins from third parties to make
>>that happen.  This can either be through the methods suggested at the
>>bottom of ForbiddenItems (indirect and possibly frustrating but it gets
>>people to scan through the list of legal problems and their OSS
>>alternatives on their way to a solution) or by placing some portion of
>>that information directly in FedoraMyths (such as my original
>>suggestion.  Can you come up with some variant of that which satisfies
>>your desire to not duplicate information on ForbiddenItems?)
>>
>>-Toshio
>> 
>>
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>>
>>    
>>
>I fail to see what you say we lack.  We specify very specific
>alternative formats on the ForbiddenItems page.  These are formats that
>are already supported by the media players in Fedora Core.  There is no
>need for users to install third-party plugins in order to gain support
>for these formats.  If a person needs a format not currently supported
>by the programs in Core, they are likely seeking proprietary formats,
>which we will not point them to.  The information currently on the wiki
>fully expresses the situation and cannot be expanded much more without
>potentialy creating legal concerns.  The information on the
>ForbiddenItems page specifies formats that people can use.  It is beyond
>the scope of these wiki documents to detail how a user can make use of
>the alternative formats.  If you would like to write a how-to for users
>who are interested in using these alternative formats, you can do so. 
>We will not direct users on how to use the proprietary formats or how to
>convert files from those formats to the alternatives, nor will we tell
>them how to add support for those formats, as doing so may violate the
>laws that govern Fedora and Red Hat.  If you wish to write a guide for
>the alternates, you must keep this in mind.  I would strongly encourage
>you to work with someone on the Docs Project if you wish to do this.
>
>  
>
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>
I thought I might add that the current version of the FedoraMyths page
does address that the programs can be extended with third-party plugins,
to about the fullest extent it can without concerns:

"Thanks to the extensibility of these media players, if there are
plugins for additional formats that are legal in your jurisdiction, you
may install them separately."

We really can't go into detail beyond that without creating risks.  I
know that this may not seem like an ideal solution, especially to users
outside of the United States, but this is really all we can do.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64 at n-man.com

www.n-man.com
-- 


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