Well like everyone else who has chimed in on this I am not a lawyer either.
Since you are basically doing a Debian remaster look at the model they use
for free and non free repositories. I think what's throwing smoke in
everyone's eyes is your wording, a "non gpl linux distribution" That sets
off my alarm bells right away. When closer observation shows you are not
doing anything nefarious or overtly
sinister. Commercial distributions have been releasing proprietary drivers
as part of their releases for years. The important distinction being that
say for example suse last time I used it offered the instalation option of
an entirely free  (FOS) install or installing proprietary drivers.  Perhaps
it's really a disclaimer you need tobe making rather than saying that you
have this liscence model which as you have just found out can be a very
thorny subject. Might I suggest you seek the council of the Debian
maintainers on the right way to do that.

On another note and I can't recall specifically where I  found this out but
it was from a maintainers list, and that is if you do a gpl distribution you
are technically required to have the source code for each gpl
program/package available. An iso image is not source code. I think busy box
deals with this violation all the time because manufacturers will use it for
a tv , pvr router whatever and only release binary firmware upgrades etc.

I think what you are doing is outstanding and I truly commend you for your
endeavor. But if I were you in an ideal world and had the abundant time
required I would perhaps consider the following.

1) A live disk distribution is good for most demo applications but for video
editing it's just not practical. So assume that anyone wanting to seriously
use your product is going to install it.

2) Be compliant to the letter with re distributing gpl packages and maintain
your own repositories for each maintained package. This will allow you to
tweak say for instance template files for or initial settings. Perhaps
consider demo files for tutorials .

3) Look at the Debian model for free and non free packages. Integrate
yourself with aptitude to refresh your own Eco system as well as that of
your Debian base install. Allow the option for a free/ non free install .

4) Keep up the good work !

Kind Regards
Daniel Jircik

On Thursday, October 6, 2011,  <[email protected]> wrote:
> Well then I'm in good company! Thanks for sharing that raffa!
>
> -GLEN
>
>
>> On 10/06/2011 11:29 PM, [email protected] wrote:
>>>...is everyone greeted with such 'hospitality'?...lol
>>
>> No, only special fellows in the same shoes as Cinelerra. :-)
>> Guess why Cinelerra is not included in Debian and Ubuntu? :-)
>>
>> Ciao!
>> Raffaella
>>
>> PS: a hint to the answer:
>> http://cinelerra.org/docs/wiki/doku.php?id=cinelerrafileslicensestatus
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cinelerra mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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