Alessandro Selli <alessandrose...@linux.com> wrote: >> That's a non sequitur >> The ONLY, and I mean ONLY bit that's relevant is the one about licence terms >> - and that's *relatively* easy to deal with one way or another as the >> licence terms are there to be read (either there are terms that allow you to >> redistribute or there aren't). >> Claims for patent infringement, DMCA infringement, and so forth can be (and >> have been) thrown at completely open and free software. >> > > Proprietary software is not encumbered only by restrictive licensing terms. > Patents and anti-circumvention laws also apply that further restrict it's > use, or the liberty to reverse-engineer it or to develop and distribute a > compatible, functional free-software equivalent. DRM and DMCA were already > used to restrict free distribution of derivative works, and claims of > fair-use exemptions were not always successful against it.
I can't make out whether you are arguing with me or against me here. The first bit is correct - most proprietary software is encumbered by patents, DMCA restrictions, and all that stuff - I almost said "all that carp" but that would be wrong since both patents and (to a much lesser extent) DMCA do have positive benefits, it's just that the systems (especially patents) are broken and not implemented in a way that supports what they were introduced for. I did not suggest that proprietary software wasn't so encumbered. What I did say is that effectively any argument about patent infringement, DMCA infringement, etc is moot - since (as you go on to show) both can and have been used against free & open software as well. It is the licence restrictions that are the problem. And as Rick so well shows, **ALL** it needs to include a proprietary driver is suitable permission from the copyright holder. Really, all the other arguments (copyright, DMCA, etc) are moot *IF* the vendor gives you a licence to ship the code on your CD or in a repository. If they don't, then copyright law alone stops you doing so. Of course, if you do have permission, then you can start discussing the options regarding separate non-free repositories etc. _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
