[LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities

[David Kiwerski]

Julian Yap wrote:
> 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
>
>
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>
>   
How would you explain Linspire's DVD player that plays commercial DVD's?

"The Linspire DVD player is a software multimedia player that includes 
legal, licensed commercial-quality codecs and auto-detection of DVDs to 
enhance the DVD playback experience under Linspire 4.5 and higher."  
This from their website.


DaveK