On 7/20/07, David Nielsen <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
fre, 20 07 2007 kl. 00:41 -0700, skrev David Boles: > on 7/19/2007 11:31 PM, Karsten Wade wrote: > > On Thu, 2007-07-19 at 22:30 -0500, Mike McGrath wrote: > > > >> "In this article, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out why he keeps giving > >> money to Microsoft and Apple despite the clear advantages of Linux: the > >> scary legalese dialogs you have to click through > > > > Maybe a scary warning in simpletonese, like a pack of cigarettes: "If > > you smoke this MP3 codec, it will eat your brane and come back for > > dessert." > > <lurk mode off> > > I have watched this thread, as well as many others like this, from the > outside. As an ordinary user and not as programmer/maintainer/developer > which I am not. An ordinary user point of view. Linux for a long time. > Fedora since FC-2. > > I do understand the Fedora FOSS policy and I do agree with it. > > But what needs to be said, once again, by an ordinary user is this. > > Be careful what you offer to provide a 'lead to' or a 'go here for this'. > Truly. Most, surely *not* all, of the people that want these types of > codecs and plugins to play, for example, mp3 music files or DVDs movies, > will be using these to listen to and play pirated (Bittorrent) music and > movies. And most, again surely not all, would be more than happy to > steal/violate/'call it whatever you wish' to be able to do so. > > Do you really want to promote that? > > Here I back out and put: > > <lurk mode on> Are you basically suggesting Fedora start becoming the thought police here. "I'm sorry sir we object morally to what _might_ be your intend as it _might_ be in violation with the law".
Under some legal considerations, yes you are required to be the thought police. [Selling alcohol to someone who is obviously drunk and driving is illegal in many countries. Some have it that the penalty is the same as the drunk driving penalty: life to death. There are lots of other laws that come up with selling of narcotics etc. And the various anti-piracy groups have been pushing for similar rules depending on where you are in the world]. The legal question that comes up is how one promotes a service promoting someone to break the law. The safest route I can see is giving the user the chance to use fluendo. If that is not possible then this is the perfect place for the 'Ubuntu-style' sub-fork of Fedora to occur. Someone starts a company that takes Fedora source, and makes it Fubluna which has codecs etc included in it. -- Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice" _______________________________________________ fedora-advisory-board mailing list fedora-advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
