The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:16 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263)
In reply to: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit by rahulsundaram
Parent article: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

I don't claim that only distributers are liable, I claim that no end user will be sued.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:20 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (10 responses)

If I get sued by a patent holder I cannot go to court and possibly say
"My Lord Los_D in LWN claimed I won't be sued if I infringe on this
patent and that's why I did it"

End users remain liable regardless of whatever you claim unless you get it
in writing from the patent holder

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:50 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (9 responses)

And there is a chance that an airplane might crash on my house while I'm in bed.

That doesn't make me sleep in the bomb shelter.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:56 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (8 responses)

Sure you might wave off the liability as meager and I would agree but you
have no right to assert that no end user will be sued and more importantly
end users do need to consider the impact of patents and promotion of patent
encumbered codecs regardless of whether they will be sued or not

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:34 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (7 responses)

It is of course up to the single user to assert the risks, and make up their mind about what they would like to use.

The problem I had with this, was the pretending that this will is a real danger for end users.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:16 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (6 responses)

The real danger is the assumption that we don't need to care about patents
as end users because we wont get sued and that is very short sighted view
of how patents affect end users as well

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:55 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (5 responses)

I agree to a point, but that is no excuse for FUDing about users getting sued.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:59 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (4 responses)

I am pointing out the legal reality and if accepting that reality offends
you so much I can't do anything about that and the simple fact is that the
users CAN get sued even if it is improbable and it is all depends on the
cost of the lawsuit vs the expectation of revenue

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:36 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

see the RIAA lawsuits as examples.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:51 UTC (Wed) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link] (1 responses)

I am pointing out the legal reality

Do you have any specific pointers to cases where end users were sued?

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 19, 2010 2:35 UTC (Fri) by AndreE (guest, #60148) [Link]

being sued isn't the legal reality. The legal reality is what law dictates.

You may not get picked up or even ticketed for speeding, but the legal reality is that speeding is an offence.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 13:12 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Users can get sued *anyway*, over any sort of invented rubbish a big
corporation wishes. Since the end result whether there's a law in place or
not is the same (the user runs out of money almost at once), I'm not sure
that end users are really affected (they go from screwed to screwed).

In the UK things might be different because we have legal aid, so there
isn't *quite* such a feeling that the law doesn't matter, all that matters
is which party can keep going the longest.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 20:24 UTC (Wed) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

The concept of "end user" is incompatible with free software. An "end user" is someone who will not be involved with distributing, selling, modifying, etc. the software further, but the whole point of free software is to allow and encourage users to do that.

So if only "end users" are safe, then the software cannot be free.