[Mageia-dev] Mageia repository sections, licenses, restrictions, firmware etc

Thu Oct 14 21:57:03 CEST 2010

Le jeudi 14 octobre 2010 20:55:01, Anssi Hannula a écrit :
+> On Wednesday 13 October 2010 20:22:01 Michael Scherer wrote:
+> > Le mardi 12 octobre 2010 à 18:02 +0300, Anssi Hannula a écrit :
+> > > Hi all!
+> > > 
+> > > Do people have any thoughts on what kind of repository/media sectioning
+> > > we should use on Mageia, and what should those sections contain?
+> > > 
+> > > Note that I won't talk about backports / private repositories in this
+> > > post, only about the basic sectioning and packages in those.
+> > > 
+> > > Some points to consider (I've written my opinion in ones where I have
+> > > one):
+> > > 
+> > > == Do we want a separated core repository?
+> > > 
+> > > No separated core: Fedora, Debian, Opensuse
+> > > Separated core: Mandriva (main), Ubuntu (main), Arch (Core)
+> > 
+> > How do we decide what would be in core ?
+> 
+> AFAICS the only reasonable reason would be to separate 'supported' and
+> 'unsupported' packages (whatever the definition we will choose for those).
+> 
+
+What is a supported package or what is an unsupported package ?
+
+For Mandriva it was clear, packages on which Mandriva provides support is in 
+main, if not it's in contrib.
+
+> > > == What about patents?
+> > > 
+> > > Almost no software with patents: Fedora, Opensuse
+> > > 
+> > >  - Essentially no media codecs except theora/vorbis/ogg/vp8 etc.
+> > >  - Strange exception: libXft, Cairo and Qt4 are shipped with LCD
+> > >  filtering
+> > >  
+> > >    support enabled, even if it is disabled in freetype
+> > > 
+> > > No software with enforced patents: Debian
+> > > 
+> > >  - not included (at least): x264 (encoder), lame mp3 (encoder)
+> > >  - included (at least): MPEG/x decoders, H.264 decoders, MP3 decoders,
+> > >  
+> > >    AAC decoders, AMR decoders, DTS decoders, AC3 decoders,
+> > >    WMV/WMA decoders, realvideo decoders, etc
+> > > 
+> > > Some software covered by patents not included: Mandriva
+> > > 
+> > >  - see below for more information
+> > > 
+> > > All software covered by patents allowed: Arch, Ubuntu
+> > > 
+> > > 
+> > > IMO we should alter our policy to match either Fedora, Debian or
+> > > Ubuntu.. The Mandriva policy makes no sense (for example, no AAC
+> > > decoder but yes for H.264 decoder and MPEG-4 encoder?).
+> > > I'm really not sure which way we should go, though. WDYT?
+> > 
+> > I would go the Debian way.
+> > Ubuntu and Fedora are tied to companies, and Debian is not, so their
+> > policies are likely more adapted to our own model.
+> > 
+> > Debian way seems to be more pragmatic that Ubuntu/Fedora on that matter.
+> 
+> Indeed, Debian's situation seems closer to ours.
+> 
+> However, a bit more investigation shows that the Debian policy "no enforced
+> patents" is not really a written policy and what it means in practice is
+> not 100% clear. A clarification request [1] has gone unanswered for 1.5
+> years, and "missing" packages x264,lame,xvidcore are sitting in the NEW
+> queue [2] without having been accepted or rejected yet (it has "only" been
+> 2.5 months, though).
+> 
+> 
+> BTW, other related 'missing' packages in debian are "mjpegtools", "faac",
+> "transcode", but the first two are missing due to license reasons instead
+> of patent issues:
+> 
+> mjpegtools contains source files that are "All Rights Reserved" by
+> "MPEG/audio software simulation group" (Ubuntu has the package in
+> multiverse, Mandriva in main)
+> 
+> faac contains a limitation that it is not allowed to be used in software
+> not conforming to MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio standards, which makes it
+> non-opensource (Ubuntu has the package in multiverse, Mandriva doesn't
+> have it).
+> 
+> transcode is missing, but there's been no recent activity on it that would
+> explain why it isn't there (IIRC its supported codecs are a subset of
+> ffmpeg ones, and ffmpeg is in Debian).
+> 
+> 
+> [1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=522373
+> (note that debian had some encoders disabled in ffmpeg at the time of the
+> above report; those have since been enabled)
+> [2] http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html
+
+Questions about patents is related to which law applies to Mageia. No answers 
+to which law then no clear policy can be applied.
+
+For me, since Mageia.org will lead the project (and will own Mageia 
+trademarks) is located in France, since build system of Mageia will be in 
+France then French law is the law we have to consider for Mageia. Debian runs 
+under SPI organization located in the state of New York, USA, thus is ruled by 
+US Laws.
+
+
+-- 
+Olivier Méjean
+Président de l'Association des Utilisateurs Francophones de Mandriva Linux
+http://mandrivafr.org
+twitter : obagoom
+identi.ca : goom
+