Fedora's way forward

Michael J Knox michael at knox.net.nz
Wed Mar 29 20:12:03 UTC 2006


Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> On 3/29/06, Michael J Knox <michael at knox.net.nz> wrote:
>> Nor do I think telling someone "There are already other distributions
>> out there which does this if this is really the only thing you want" is
>> the correct way to tackle, what is, a real world issue.
> 
> Nor is conveniently ignoring the fact that the underlying issue is the
> very thorny messy nature as to software patents and how software
> patents interact to restrict the freedoms and or rights typically
> granted in FOSS software.. freedoms that are essential to how foss
> development is done. To continue to try to discussion the issues
> surrounding supporting mp3 and other similar media technologies like
> they are just another piece of proprietary software code that can
> re-developed from scratch to fill a compatibility need is an egregious
> effort at miscommunication as to where the problems actually lie.
> 
> Software patents very much constrain how collaborative development in
> an open source model can be done and I am very confident that certain
> people in this discussion of aware of that constrain and I continue to
> find it bemusing at the stance they are taking about trying to
> incorporate patent encumbered technologies into a software project
> which  relies on the very freedoms and rights embodied in FOSS
> copyright licensing to enable the massively collaborative development
> effort that makes this project possible at all.
> 
> This whole discussion is unconstructive and was intiated by a post,
> while well intentioned, was in fact using the wrong assumptions with
> regard to the patent situations.
> Once ESR recognized that the patent situation was more complicated
> than he had assumed this conversation should have been tabled until he
> made a personal effort to become more informed as to the patent issue.
> Instead he's chosen to continue in a discussion predicated on
> misinformation which he himself brought to this discussion. Quite
> frankly I'm very disappointed in his continued participation in this
> discussion because he continues to mislead people into believing that
> this is a simple matter of open source reverse engineering of a
> proprietary format..which it is not.  I can not stress enough that the
> issue of software patents is vitally important and its impact on the
> freedoms and rights afforded to the community under FOSS copyright
> licensing  can not be ignored when making arguments about weight
> pragmatic access to functionality against idealist views towards FOSS
> software distribution.
> 
> In my personal opinion, the original post from  ESR was less informed
> than most OSNews editorials I read, and that is a particularly low bar
> to meet.
> 
> -jef
> 


Jef,

I am not ignoring nor am I misunderstanding the issue. Pretending it 
doesn't exist is not the answer, nor is mis-representing what people 
say. I am also well aware of the issues surrounding patent emcumbered 
software.

Me personally? I use the gstreamer mp3 plugin (thanks Fluendo) for the 
very little mp3 use I need (like mp3's from record label websites and 
the odd pod cast)

Michael






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