[LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities

[Julian Yap]

On Sat, 2006-06-03 at 13:22 -1000, Jim Thompson wrote:
> On Jun 3, 2006, at 11:28 AM, Hawaii Linux Institute wrote:
> > But in order to do MP3, DVD, and/or play movies, etc., you need to  
> > do something extra.  Fortunately, there is a Python script that  
> > will do all these, and more, in one simple batch process:
> >
> > http://users.on.net/~goetz/EasyUbuntu/get.html
> 
> Of course, once you do that, you no longer have a 100% FOSS system.

.. And also, you no longer have a legal system.

For example, DVD playback capabilities are in violation of the U.S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and similar laws in other countries)

Some FOSS distros have similar pages which make for interesting reading:
http://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_Formats
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormatsProblem

There's a bug in Malone regarding this issue as well:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-express/+bug/5237

One solution is to install free (as in beer) software such as
RealPlayer.

So yeah, on a personal level I'm looking into some of the legalities for
HOSEF.  As we are not a distribution like Ubuntu with a commitment to
FOSS, it may be legal for us to distribute non-free applications like
RealPlayer.  It would be on a case-by-case basis based on the
distribution clauses of the applications.  I'm still weighing things up
in my mind to even go down that route.

Conversely, it is legal to license DVD playback and build a distro based
on Ubuntu and call it DVD-Ubuntu or something like that.  Say it costs
you $10 per seat.  You could then charge the break even cost per seat
for a copy of DVD-Ubuntu...  Now telling them that the cost of DVD
playback costs them $10 is one thing.  Educating them that the price of
freedom costs more than $10 is another thing.

"If you give people freedom but don't teach them to value it, they won't
hold on to it for long. So it is not enough to spread free software. We
have to teach people to demand freedom, to fight for freedom. Then we
may be able to overcome the problems that today I see no way to solve."
- RMS (http://kerneltrap.org/node/4484)

~ Julian