(no subject)

[gilpel at altern.org]

Sorry, I've deleted the "FAQ on Software Patents" started by Rahul
Sundaram. so I'll have to answer in a new thread.


Rahul Sundaram wrote:

> From time to time, the same questions come up on MP3 and other patent
> related things and I have written up some answers at

> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Software_Patents

> If you have other related questions, feel free to ask and I will try to
> answer them in the wiki. Note that I am not a lawyer and this is not
> legal advice.

This almost looks like a follow-up to the thread "What are Microsoft
codecs?" that some real Linux lovers pretty much succeeded in trashing.

Unfortunately, the legal approach of Mr Sundaram still doesn't answer this
enigma: if proprietary document formatting is just defining an awfully
more complex and secret way of producing bold than <B></B>, then what are
media codecs exactly?

But I'm sure all those who pretended that fedora-list wasn't the place to
hold such a discussion will be happy to join in.

As for myself, I'll just suggest another subject for reflection. While
most Fedora supporters here agree with Microsoft that market share is
totally unimportant to Fedora, while Ubuntu LTS is released every second
year and supported for 5 on servers, will Red Hat leave the road open to
former Thawte CEO to get all the user base? Does Red Hat really think that
Fedora users will buy RHEL because they dig GIMP 2.2 so much?

I had a fair chance to observe how non-profit organisations were run in
the recent years and I really thought that a company on the Stock Exchange
would be different. Now, I'm beginning to wonder.