[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout

Fri Dec 10 19:54:08 CET 2010

On Fri, 10 Dec 2010, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
+
+> 2010/12/10 Romain d'Alverny <rdalverny at gmail.com>:
+> >
+> > Ok, but you still take into account SP in your answer. :-p (we would
+> > have come to that, but the idea was to think about it from a naïve,
+> > software-patent-free perspective).
+> 
+> If there were no software patents anywhere what would be the issue of
+> this discussion?
+> IMHO it makes no sense to discuss something which does not exist
+> 
+> If Mageia were a project fro French users only we would no have this
+> discussion. But as it is a worldwide project the probelm exists and
+> pretending it does not makes no sense, not even from a theoretical
+> POV. because the theoretical POV is "No SP, no discussion".
+> 
+> Ok, anyway.
+> 
+> I see the strategy in your proposition but:
+> 
+> 1. We know from the start that there ARE packages with software which
+> is patented in some countries. So, the "let's start empty and see what
+> comes up" is already done with.
+
+Being patented does not mean that patent is valid and enforceable.
+
+> 2. In some countries mirror maintainers can not wait until somebody
+> raises his hand, there are lawyers who write nice "cease and desist"
+> letters, attached is a bill you have to pay. In Germany this is called
+> "Kostenpflichtige Abmahnung"  and has grown to a habit of some
+> lawyers.
+> Meaning: you can't wait and see what happens, you have to make sure
+> that it does not happen from the start.
+> 
+> I mean, opinions about software patents set aside for a minute,
+> software patents are protected by official law in those countries. You
+> can not break the law on the basis of "let's see what happens".
+
+The problem is that we don't know for sure if we violate the law. We
+should not be too paranoid about this. Microsoft claims that the Linux
+kernel violates 235 of their patents :
+http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm
+Should we trust them and remove the kernel from the core repository ?
+
+I'm wondering how much mirror admins are concerned about patent issues.
+If we split the packages between core and "tainted" repositories, how
+many will filter it ? If only a few will do it, maybe it's not really
+worth it and we can still have enough mirrors. It seems that Debian has
+mirrors in many countries, while hosting patented software in its main
+repository.
+
+