On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 01:57:44PM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote: > I think you just contradicted yourself. From Microsoft's PoV, the fact that > the fonts now ship to the only platforms they care about would be motivation > enough to begin putting the fonts out of reach of competitors.
But they can't put them out of reach. Once you've released something that you've allowed people to redistribute... it's too late... you can't change the license. There is nothing they can do. Don't count on them to make this mistake again. > Microsoft do care about Linux, deeply, because we're an explosively-growing > competitor that standard tactics are almost helpless before the advance of. > > You all know Trey well by now, he's not interested in competitors except as > objects of fear apon which to visit destruction, either directly or via > assimilation. Linux can't be destroyed other than by completely locking it > out of core markets (that's what Palladium is for, but it will fail) and > can't be assimilated. > > Now although it seems legally clear that you could include the font EXE files > themselves in the freely downloadable versions of Mandrake, `seems' is a > bigger gap than many people expect. > > I myself would choose to include your RPM - because it does not include or > provide any copyrighted material, or perform any illegal acts, so even if > there does turn out to be a problem the act of including it could very easily > be upheld as reasonable - but would have a hand near the `Yank From Distro' > button for when Microsoft change the rules. I would even go so far as to > include the intact EXEs as a separate item in Mandrake mirrors, with the > understanding that we might be expected to yank those, too. They can't change the rules. It's no different than if I write a piece of software. I then release it as GPL. Later I decide that I don't want it GPL anymore. I can't recall all the GPL copies and make those people use my new license. All I can do is stop updating the copy with the license I don't want and remove the GPL copy from my site. But because the license (GPL or even Microsoft's in this case) allows redistribution, there is nothing I can do to stop people from using the software. > However, I don't own Mandrake, and I'm a bit too cavalier about these things > to ever own a Mandrake, so I can see that my approach may be wrong. > > Anyway, as long as Texstar and friends package it, and there's some Russian or > Chinese mirror holding the fonts, it will be useful. > > Here's a feature request: if the primary mirrors are down, have the option of > getting the wrapper app to hit Google with the exact names of many of the > font files, and to try a number of the results at random to see if the files > are present and real. I would include a unique keyword in the same file as > the apps to avoid false hits, and also the sizes and checksums of the EXE > files (now someone's going to raise their hand and tell me that MD5 is a > DMCA-able circumvention device: well, so is a pencil). No need. I've already got a script up on my site that watches the links my redirects point to. If those links stop working I just change the redirects to point to ones that do work. As long as the files are distributed in tact per the license agreement there is no fear that the download sites will be forced to stop carrying. The only issue is if one of them goes offline for other reasons (techinical or money issues probably). -- Ben Reser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://ben.reser.org "If you're not making any mistakes, you're flat out not trying hard enough." - Jim Nichols
