3 ms·

This is the first article of the policy: > Debian will not knowingly distribute software encumbered by patents; Debian contributors should not package or distr

by Flimm 15y ago

This is the first article of the policy: > Debian will not knowingly distribute software encumbered by patents; Debian contributors should not package or distribute software they know to infringe a patent. That seems a bit too vague for me. Would free software like Mono, VLC or ffmpeg fall under this category? Many people would say that they are patent encumbered, (and of course, many would say the opposite).

lmm 15y ago
Have you ever used Debian? It already doesn't distribute many codecs for precisely this reason.
- Flimm 15y ago
  Currently, Debian does distribute Mono, VLC and ffmpeg, I'm not aware of the codecs you speak of. (Oh, and I do use Debian, five days a week, but I don't see how that's relevant to my question.)
  - elehack 15y ago
    They didn't - last I knew - distribute LAME or other MP3 encoders. I think the patent enforcement situation has changed since that call was originally made, but earlier (late 90's, early 2000's), the patent owners were enforcing patents for encoders but not decoders.
- zacgarrett 15y ago
  see also: IceCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat It is a version of Firefox with the branding removed as that portion has a copyright by Mozilla. This project started in 2004-2005. I actually thought the policy in the original post has always been Debian's policy.
  - Flimm 15y ago
    Mozilla has trademark rights over the Firefox name and logo, and they license the logo's image file under a proprietary copyright license. It has nothing to do with patents, so the new policy does not affect that issue at all.
- sciurus 15y ago
  Isn't this one reason for the existence of http://debian-multimedia.org http://debian-multimedia.org ?
- gcb 15y ago
  Have you used it recently? You can taint your install with pretty much anything. I have access to more firmwares blobs than with Ubuntu.
davidw 15y ago
What's "known" - are they going to keep track of it somehow?

by Flimm 15y ago

lmm 15y ago

Have you ever used Debian? It already doesn't distribute many codecs for precisely this reason.

Flimm 15y ago
Currently, Debian does distribute Mono, VLC and ffmpeg, I'm not aware of the codecs you speak of. (Oh, and I do use Debian, five days a week, but I don't see how that's relevant to my question.)
- elehack 15y ago
  They didn't - last I knew - distribute LAME or other MP3 encoders. I think the patent enforcement situation has changed since that call was originally made, but earlier (late 90's, early 2000's), the patent owners were enforcing patents for encoders but not decoders.
zacgarrett 15y ago
see also: IceCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat It is a version of Firefox with the branding removed as that portion has a copyright by Mozilla. This project started in 2004-2005. I actually thought the policy in the original post has always been Debian's policy.
- Flimm 15y ago
  Mozilla has trademark rights over the Firefox name and logo, and they license the logo's image file under a proprietary copyright license. It has nothing to do with patents, so the new policy does not affect that issue at all.
sciurus 15y ago
Isn't this one reason for the existence of http://debian-multimedia.org http://debian-multimedia.org ?
gcb 15y ago
Have you used it recently? You can taint your install with pretty much anything. I have access to more firmwares blobs than with Ubuntu.

davidw 15y ago

What's "known" - are they going to keep track of it somehow?