making Ubuntu easy

Chanchao custom at freenet.de
Wed May 24 04:10:30 BST 2006


On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 21:53 -0500, Scott Dier wrote:

> IANAL, but is there contributory infringement laws for patents much like 
> copyrights?  It may be bad for any company based in a country with 
> enough treaties to the USA to engage in such activity. (arugh)

Well, Ubuntu is an operating system allowing people to use computers.
Computers are sometimes used for illegal activities. "So is Ubuntu to
blame any time anyone does something illegal with their computer?"
After all Ubuntu didn't completely prevent people from breaking the law,
thus they are an accessory to the 'crime'..  There's always ways people
(lawyers) could argue that Ubuntu contributed to breaking a patent or a
copyright.  "They've always explained it quite clearly on their website
right?"  If that isn't helping people 'break the law' then what is. 

So I think it's very murky no matter what Ubuntu does.  Like, they
provide Bittorrent out of the box.  Bittorrent is sometimes used to
download copyrighted material illegally. Etc, etc.   When you're a big
player you will find yourself in court at one time or another no matter
what you do. 

Cheers,
Chanchao




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