| |||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||
Red Hat legal speaks
I've gotten some legal updates that I know some people have been waiting for: libgpod/gtkpod support for newer ipods: Legal says that we can incorporate this code, it does not violate the DMCA, because it is solely for the purposes of interoperability. This means that we can go ahead and enable support for new ipods in Fedora. ***** Linking to "third party repositories": Legal says that we can link, from the Fedora website, to third party repositories, so long as no one has made a critical assessment to determine that a patent or patents cover the technology in question and no party has actually asserted their patents against the technology, we should be okay. Once we are on notice of a claim of infringement or are aware of a competent assessment that concludes infringement is likely, we would need to take the link down or run a serious risk of facing a claim for inducing infringement. Merely linking would be highly unlikely to subject us to a claim of direct infringement. I asked about MP3, and it was stated that unless we are specifically aware of the MP3 patent holders asserting a claim against the technology, we are still okay. This means that we can put a page up on the fedoraproject.org wiki, which carefully explains that there is an optional addon repository called Livna, which contains packages that for a variety of reasons, are not included in the normal Fedora repositories. We should not specify these reasons, and if someone asserted their patents against something in Livna, we would need to take the page down. We can link to Livna directly on this page. We cannot ship yum configs which enable Livna (but Livna provides these, so we don't really need to). ***** As a reminder, if you have legal issues related to Fedora, please let me know, and I'll do my best to get them resolved. Thanks, ~spot (Log in to post comments)
Red Hat legal speaks Posted Nov 7, 2007 17:01 UTC (Wed) by spot (guest, #15640) [Link] Keep in mind that these are our lawyers, not yours. Your mileage may vary, etc, etc, etc.
Red Hat legal speaks Posted Nov 7, 2007 17:14 UTC (Wed) by marduk (subscriber, #3831) [Link] I think I'll just stick with an MP3 player where I feel a little less worried about getting sued for actually trying to use the damn thing.
Red Hat legal speaks Posted Nov 7, 2007 18:51 UTC (Wed) by DonDiego (subscriber, #24141) [Link] You can stop worrying on the spot. No users of MP3 players are being sued anywhere.
Red Hat legal speaks Posted Nov 7, 2007 20:17 UTC (Wed) by Ed_L. (guest, #24287) [Link] But MP3 isn't the entire point, merely a safe example. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Spot (and others at Fedora/RedHat) for keeping us stuck-in-the-sand small business lusers apprised of Fedora/RedHat's legal positions and updates thereto. I work in a very conservative industry that has pretty well embraced Red Hat and its freebie wannabe clones. I doubt it would have happened had Red Hat a more
Red Hat legal speaks Posted Nov 8, 2007 16:16 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] The legal policy can't be libertarian, conservative, or liberal. It's dictated by the law. Unfortunately it seems that our government, and a significant portion of our population, has lost the concept of liberty completely. This is what letting a combination of greedy bastards, soulless beuracrats, and smarter-then-thou social engineering types run things.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 18:58 UTC (Wed) by esr (guest, #14345) [Link] Congratulations, Red Hat, but too late. Ubuntu has been carrying links to livna-equivalent repositories addressing the proprietary-codec problem for, oh, about eighteen months now without a peep from the big bad rights-holders who were supposedly going to sue us all into oblivion. Your me-to move might have impressive two years ago; it sure isn't today. Where were you when the community was looking to its leading vendor to make some kind of stand on MP3 decoders *four* years ago? Never mind, I know where because I was a Red Hat user then -- you were taking the most gutless and damaging defensive position possible, actually conceding ground in lawsuits that hadn't happened yet in a way that damaged the community's prospects if they ever do. And all the while you were loudly denying that access to MP3 decoding was actually a functional problem. I was disgusted with that spineless behavior then, and it's a major reason I eventually stopped being a Red Hat user and switched to Ubuntu. I'm not impressed with your belated and feeble attempt to undo the damage now. I'm pretty sure now that Ubuntu is going to eat your lunch. I'm certain that for your supine gutlessness on MP3s, and for abandoning the larger struggle for desktop market share, you're going to deserve that fate.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 19:21 UTC (Wed) by spot (guest, #15640) [Link] Are you so desperate to be considered relevant that you're flaming Red Hat for being prudent on legal matters, as opposed to behaving recklessly? Red Hat (and by proxy, Fedora) is the largest target for open source based legal issues. If this means that we sometimes move slowly and cautiously, based on the advice of legal counsel, well, that's how it is. P.S. Stop calling us and hanging up. We know its you. We're seeing other people now.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 19:37 UTC (Wed) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] RedHat is headquartered in the US. Canonical is not, with offices in England and Canada. Why should Canonical care about US patents or being sued in US courts when they don't have a business presence there? As for the rest of your tirade, you're certianly entitled to your opinion, but you're not the type of customer RedHat is after.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 19:43 UTC (Wed) by michich (subscriber, #17902) [Link] Clowns? I can see only one clown.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 19:47 UTC (Wed) by mday_ii (subscriber, #25315) [Link] Dude, go upload some smooth jazz to your player and relax.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 20:48 UTC (Wed) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link] Speaking of compromised values, are you still involved with Linspire or what?
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 22:40 UTC (Wed) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link] With advocates like you, we sure don't need detractors. Those "clowns" you speak of contribute one hell of a lot in the proper style. I prefer Ubuntu over RedHat and friends myself but Ubuntu is good as it is due in part to quite a bit of work from RedHat developers. They deserve some respect.
Who exactly is the clown here? Posted Nov 7, 2007 22:54 UTC (Wed) by vnk (guest, #48923) [Link] What a sad and unfounded tirade from a person who once was listened to. Glad you're not using Red Hat/Fedora anymore.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 7, 2007 23:17 UTC (Wed) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link] So, wait, you WANT the distros to use proprietary codecs? I thought you were all about the open source. Or is this just another bid for attention from someone who has not been relevant for several years?
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 8, 2007 0:11 UTC (Thu) by sbergman27 (subscriber, #10767) [Link] I'm assuming for purposes of this post that "esr" really is Eric Raymond. I'm sure Jonathan will inform us if my assumption is incorrect. What a crass and nonconstructive post. If you want to be considered a community leader... and it is pretty obvious that you do... you need to act like one. That means being constructive, and employing at east a basic level of diplomacy. Fedora and Ubuntu are two different distros. They share some focus in some areas, and differ in others. I use Fedora on my desktop, Ubuntu on my laptop, and a mix of Fedora and CentOS on my clients' servers. As a user, I have been frustrated, at times, with RedHat/Fedora's approach to the whole mp3/codecs issue. But I have always *respected* them. And I have refrained from the kind of useless petty griping that I see in your post here. And in my opinion, you should, too.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 8, 2007 1:27 UTC (Thu) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link] Don't feed the trolls.
Clowns and ELER Posted Nov 8, 2007 9:36 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Speaking of clowns... Quick, somebody forward this post to ELER. We might get a new strip if we get lucky.
It's about time those clowns showed some backbone Posted Nov 19, 2007 0:35 UTC (Mon) by squiggleslash (guest, #49117) [Link] What on Earth has happened to ESR?The above article seems to be little more than some pointless bile spewing. It's at a contributing member of our community, RedHat, and seems to do little but insult and demean them for little or no reason. Fedora didn't support proprietary codecs? And? Why is he treating this as if RedHat was supporting the holocaust or trying to steal Eric's guns? RedHat had their reasons, they're actually pretty reasonable, they damaged nobody in sticking to their guns, all they did was make their distribution of free GNU/Linux fractionally harder to use. It was bad enough when Raymond encouraged the factionalization of the Free Software community into "Open Source" and "Free"; now he appears to be intent on creating more splits within the sub-movement he co-founded. Again, the free software and open source communities would do well to ignore the shrill voices of division, conflict, and alienation and look for those who promote calm, professional, unity.
MPEG patents and prior art Posted Nov 8, 2007 7:08 UTC (Thu) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link] I have on occasion heard mentioned that there is known prior art for the whole pile of MPEG patents. Has anyone tried putting together a site listing such prior art? If it proved true, then it would at least strengthen the hand of those who support free codecs.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||