On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 12:00 -0600, Richi Plana wrote:
On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 21:49 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> I am not talking about any repo files. Just a pointer in documentation
> or in any application. The details are explained in FAB list. That
> requires Legal to look into this. No amount of layman arguments can help
> us make a decision and legal perspectives doesn't always make logical
> sense which many tend to assume.
In other words, Fedora's lawyers have deemed it risky (or even downright
illegal) to include in the distro .repo files that would allow users to
download, say, US-illegal codecs even if the repository itself
physically and logistically isn't connected to Fedora. But pointers in
documents can.
There we go. That's what the legal experts are saying. Do I have it
about right?
It's called contributory infringement.
In the United States, 35 U.S.C. ยง 271(b) defines (active) induced
infringement: "Whoever actively induces infringement of a patent shall
be liable as an infringer."
This means, we cannot point to a repo which contains software which
infringes upon software patents, or we are just as liable as the people
actually infringing the patents. We can't include a repo file, nor can
we say "the files are over there".
Not in CodecBuddy, not in yum, not in a tree, not with a cat.
No.
~spot