[Mageia-dev] rehashing the faac issue

Tue Oct 30 04:02:36 CET 2012

On Tuesday 30 October 2012 02:44, andre999 wrote:
+> If there is some constraint on the redistribution of a package in some 
+> countries, such as patent claims or encryption technology used or 
+> whatever, mirrors in affected countries may reasonably want to avoid 
+> carrying such packages.
+> For this reason, we created the "tainted" repos, which are optional for 
+> official mirrors.
+> However we added the additional restriction that packages in tainted 
+> must also be open source, to satisfy those that don't want to install 
+> non-free packages.
+> 
+> If we want to continue this additional restriction, we would have to 
+> create another set of repos for packages that are both constrained 
+> (tainted) and non-free, in order to carry such packages.
+
+The problem of including nonfree spftware in tainted, is that it no longer is a Free software repo in countries that don't accept software patents.
+
+Nonfree software belongs in a nonfree tree. If we need to create a new repo for them, so be it. That is the right thing to do.
+No one said that the right thing to do would be easy. :-)=
+
+> However there are very few packages that meet this restriction.  Also 
+> the tainted repos contain relatively few packages, compared with core 
+> and nonfree.
+
+What has that got to do with anything?
+Either a package is Free and open source software,  or it is not. wether it belongs in the majority or a tiny minority is not the issue.
+The issue at stake is our Freedom.
+
+I happens to live in a country where the packages in tainted is Free software in every sense of the word. And I don't believe that I'm the only one that is.
+Tainted is a convenience for those that live in a country that have software patents, not the otherway around. Don't clutter the water for those of us where tainted still is a Free software repo.
+
+-- 
+Johnny A. Solbu
+PGP key ID: 0xFA687324
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