On 08/18/2009 11:07 AM, Raj Mathur wrote: > On Tuesday 18 Aug 2009, steve wrote: >> [snip] >> The reason Fedora doesn't support another distro, or for that matter >> non-US repos with mp3 support, is less to do with legal restrictions >> (of which there are some[1]) and more to do with the principle of the >> matter. >> >> They /too/ are opposed to the principle of software patents. They do >> not want to become hypocrites by opposing it on one hand and then >> just make it easy for anyone to ignore the matter by themselves >> providing an way to do so. >> >> More here: >> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/MP3 > > Afarid I'm going to be nitpicking here, but we really need a formal > opinion on whether use of MP3 is illegal in India or not. The Fedora > page says, ``The MP3 patents are protected by United States law and > international treaties, and the Fedora Project will honor the applicable > laws and treaties.''. However there is no treaty that enforces US > software patents in India to the best of my knowledge. Of course, the > fact that India does not have software patents at all could have > something to do with that :)
In the link[1] that I sent in my other reply check questions 1.4 to 1.7. Hopefully that clears up Fedora's stand on the matter. > > Further, if you see where MP3 is patented, it works out to a rather > small list of 18-20 countries. Should 90% of the countries in the world > be penalised because 10% have taken an ill-considered step towards > restricting their citizens' rights? I doubt if any reasonable person > could agree to those terms! True and neither does Rahul agree with that reasoning. That's the reason why the Omega /spin/[2] exists. A spin is essentially the same as the distro. cheers, - steve [1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Software_Patents [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CustomSpins -- random non tech spiel: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/ tech randomness: http://lonehacks.blogspot.com/ what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/ -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
