--- Adam Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > US law is braindead enough to make that not > illegal?
Unfortunately our system of gov't is fatally flawed, and there are lots of braindead laws now. > > 1- we provide sourcecode > > 2- we provide a button in rpmdrake to compile it > and install it > > 3- as long as we have a text reading "continuing > is illegal by > > the us law", we are legal > > > > Really??? Time to change your laws, people! It's > simple > > nonsense.. Agreed. > Well - as someone says, making it so easy may be > legally dubious. But > the underlying point is entirely correct, i'm 100% > sure of this. Under > US patent law, you can publish a blueprint for a > machine that infringes > someone else's patent entirely legally, since you're > not actually > selling something *tangible* that breaks patent, > you're just telling > people how you could - theoretically - build a > machine that breaks > patent. I think it's considered that outlawing this > would be an > unreasonable infringement of free speech. The same > laws consider the > source code of software a blueprint, not a > functioning machine that > infringes patent, since you can't actually *do* > anything with source > code - it has to be compiled before it becomes a > machine that infringes > patent law. As I said, this is why Mandrake can > happily distribute a > source RPM for freetype that can be compiled with > the patent-infringing > bytecode interpreter, but it can't ship the binary > library compiled with > this option turned on; thus the single -mdk .src.rpm > can generate both > -mdk and -plf binary .rpms. It's also the reason why > you can legally > download the source code to LAME but not any > compiled binaries. > > As someone pointed out in response to my original > post - making it as > easy as a button in rpmdrake might be skating on > legal thin ice, so you > should at least definitely take legal advice before > doing that. But > certainly, sticking the SRPMS on the main CDs and > including instructions > on compiling them, both within the distro and on > Mandrake's website, > ought to be perfectly legal so long as there's a > disclaimer stating that > it's a breach of patent to compile them in the US > (unless, of course, > you've paid your license fee). IANAL, so as a matter > of course this > should of course be checked with Mandrake's lawyers, > but i'm pretty > certain it's correct. What really sucks is you need a decoder to even convert mp3s to oggs, so we either ignore this or leave people high and dry :o( __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com
