On Sun, 2006-01-15 at 17:38 -0500, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-01-15 at 23:33 +0100, Cesare Marilungo wrote:
> > Maybe it is just because a distro that is shipped in large quantities
> > should otherwise pay royalties?
> >
>
> They don't have to ship it, they just have to set up their installer so
> it goes on the Net and downloads the MP3 packages from a server in a non
> software patent country.
>
> For example (not to beat a dead horse) the distros can't ship the Nvidia
> binary driver, as this would violate the GPL (GPL code cannot be linked
> with proprietary code) but some have a package where if you "apt-get
> install" it, it will go and grab the driver from nvidia's site, compile
> the wrapper and link it to the kernel you are running. It's still a GPL
> violation, but the individual user is violating the GPL, not the distro.
>
Damn good point! Unfortunately, with the latest US Supreme Court
ruling on contributory infringement I doubt if any US distro could get
away with this.
-- Jan 'Evil Twin' Depner The Fuzzy Dice http://myweb.cableone.net/eviltwin69/fuzzy.html "As we enjoy great advantages from the invention of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously." Benjamin Franklin, on declining patents offered by the governor of Pennsylvania for his "Pennsylvania Fireplace", c. 1744Received on Mon Jan 16 04:15:26 2006
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