Policy change on emulators
To the Fedora Community,
The Fedora policy on emulators has been in place for quite some time, it
is one of the first legal rules we put in place. Recently, we
reconsidered that rule and have amended our position (with discussion
from Red Hat Legal).
Previously, the guidelines forbid the majority of emulators from being
included in Fedora, but the new guidelines, while longer, are more
permissive.
=== Emulators ===
Some emulators (applications which emulate another platform) are not
permitted for inclusion in Fedora. These rules will help you determine
whether an emulator is acceptable for Fedora.
* Emulators which depend on firmware or ROM files to function may not be
included in Fedora, unless the copyright holder(s) for the firmware/ROM
files give clear permission for the firmware/ROM files to be distributed
(either under a Fedora permissible license or under the Fedora firmware
exception criteria). Note: This only covers the situation where an
emulator will not run at all without firmware/ROM files. For example,
emulators that compile and run, but ship with no game ROMs are not
covered by this rule.
* Emulators must not ship with any ROM files (e.g. games) unless those
ROM files are available under a Fedora permissible license and have been
built from source code in the Fedora buildsystem.
* Emulators must not point to any third-party sites which provide
firmware or ROM files that are distributed without the clear and
explicit permission of their copyright holders.
* All other Fedora licensing and packaging rules apply to emulators.
=================
The home for this policy is here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:SoftwareTypes#Emulators
This change is effective immediately and also applies to Copr.
If you have questions about this change, please feel free to email me
(either directly or on the devel/legal lists).
Thanks,
~tom
==
Red Hat