> On 06/04/06, Christian Nolte <ch.nolte@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Hash: SHA1 > > > > Styma, Robert E (Robert) schrieb: > > > As Linux makes inroads into the end user market, a simple > way to make Linux do > > > what a Windows box will do out of the box would be nice. > This would have to be > > > done by people other than the GPL purists and it would > probably be wise to do > > > this outside the United States. > > > > It would be nice to somehow inform the user about those > issues when he > > first tries to open media which is potentially illegal to access or > > endangered with patent issues. A really nice suggestion in this > > direction can be found in this article: > > > > > IMHO the non GPL-stuff must stay out of fedora because it > restricts the > > freedom of a certain user, but it must be in the users > power to get the > > problematic media up and running without much hassle. > > > > I'm sure someone from RH can give you a better answer, but it's my > understanding that as a US company they open themselves up to > trouble if they even give you instructions on how to do things like > play mp3s. So they quietly mention the unofficial FAQ and let you > work it out for yourself. > > Of course this wouldn't be a problem if people didn't believe you > could patent 1+1=2 or that copyright laws really offer any more > protection if they make it an offence to break fundamentally > flawed encryption schemes > (<http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/OggPCM_Draft3#Encryption_Header>), > but there you go. > I agree with everything that has been said here. However the bottom line is that some new person goes through the exercise of loading Fedora on his laptop. He is pretty proud of himself as it went in rather nice. He goes to the store buys a DVD puts it in the player and it won't play. When he asks for help, he gets one answer explaining why it cannot be allowed to work and a slightly more useful answer pointing him to detailed instructions which assume far more know how than he has. For example, use the Livna or FreshRPM repositories. Fine, configuring /etc/yum.repos.d (I just had to stop and check in /etc whether it was yum.conf.d or yum.repos.d) is a whole different set up which must be addressed before you address the first problem. What I am suggesting is that in some country where it is not illegal, that the process for getting the correct RPM's loaded and the correct repositories set up be automated for the beginning user. This way it is not part of the official Fedora, The GPL is protected, US laws are circumvented, and things work for the non-technically adept. Is it moral? US companies commonly circumvent US minimum wage laws, safety in the workplace laws, child labor laws, by shipping the work to countries where the laws do not apply. Many of these are the same companies which are pressing the issues of digital rights management and enforcing restrictions on techniques which were freely available after they become mainstream. These companies seem to feel what they are doing is moral, so when dealing with them, taking the process outside the US should be fine. Oh well, enough ranting, I just get frustrated seeing people go through the same painful experience when the switch to the more solid and secure Linux world. Bob Styma
