On Sat, Jan 02, 2010 at 18:12:03 -0600, "Robert E. Martin, VCM Network" <Robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I am somewhat confused. I thought that as an open sourced OS, it was a free > license, which included the applications in the repositories. What am I > missing? Some things are supported by free software but are covered by patents. So while this software can be used in some places, it can not in others. In particular the US currently recognizes software patents. Fedora does not include software that is know to be covered by software patents where there isn't a license to allow for free (in cost) use. This mostly impacts audio and video codecs. The RPM Fusion repo provides software for a number of important codec, but you aren't allowed to use the software in the US without a license agreement from the patent holder. There are ways to get software that comes with such a license, but you need to get it from someplace other than Fedora. In contrast Ubuntu has deals where it can distribute some software which supports codecs covered by patents that Fedora can't. If the tasks you plan to do include playing audio or video that uses nonfree codecs, that would make Ubuntu more attractive to you. Another case is software that is banned in the US. For example if you want to play standard DVDs, you need to be able to decyrpt them. The encryption in combination with the DMCA provide a way for a cartel of movie producers to control the features of DVD players. (For example to prevent people from making backup copies in order to force people to re-buy movies at full price rather than for the cost of media. Or to prevent people from format shifting to force people to re-buy movies for each device (for example iPODs) they own. Because unsanctioned DVD players that decrypt normal DVDs are considered circumvention devices, they are illegal to use or distribute in the US. If you stick to the normal Fedora repositories (NOT RPM Fusion or Livna) you will be OK license-wise, but may not have some functionallity you need. (In which case you will need to get that functionallity from outside of Fedora.) -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
