Kubuntu annoyances (check list)

[Edulix]

Hi back:

Oh dear, I knew there was a point which I missed addressing... the legality 
problem. How could I? Let's see:

USA is a contry where it might be illegal to install something like libdvdcss. 
Australia and UK probably too. But that doesn't mean that it's illegal in 
every country, because for example here in Spain DMCA means nothing, and 
patents on software are unlawful.

So it's a complicated situation, but not unsolveable. I think that in the my 
multimedia libs installation wizzard user should be asked to exit if 
installing the libraries in his/her country is illegal, and make clear that 
we cannot control if the user is liying (and will not) and that we're not 
responsible of it. We could try to maintain a list of countries where it is 
legal and illegal (black/white list) to make the decision easier.

If you're not willing to do so because it's risky, then you could alway 
provide a link to a repository (whose server should be in a country where the 
stored packages are legal) where it can dowload the version of the software 
with the wizzard addin, or whatever. But it should be point and clic, maybe 
it could be done using klik:// altough I don't think this level of paranoia 
is needed.

Saludos,
    Edulix.

El Lunes, 10 de Abril de 2006 19:34, Gary W. Swearingen escribió:
> Yeah, my main problem with the current situation is that I'm unsure
> what's legal and what's not, except the Real and Flash players from
> their owners.  I'd really like to see an article or something
> explaining the situation really well.  Are 3rd-party Real players
> legit, or are they based on illegal (DCMA?) reverse engineering?  I'm
> fairly sure decoders for normal DVDs are illegal in the USA, but how
> many DVDs need decoding?  All of them?  Etc.
>
> I get the impression from
> http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html that all MP3 players
> must be fee-licensed, while I've seen few appropriately-scary warnings
> about downloading FOSS MP3 players which I doubt have been properly
> licensed.  I've not intentionally gotten "mplayer" for this reason,
> but I worry that it (or something like it) has been buried in some
> other download, like an OS ISO.
>
> I know there's some risk in using any software because you can't know
> who owns and cares about what IP (esp. patents) that might apply.
> Fortunately, the risk seems sufficiently small to accept in most
> cases, at least for most users.