On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 04:59 -0500, ryan wrote:
Not all closed-source software is illegal for public distribution.
I never said they were. In fact, some distros do distribute software that is not fully open source, but is still 100% redistributable. That's not a legal issue for projects.
Remember, the whole reason I even mentioned this was because some distros have a unified set of repositories, and that includes redistribution of items it did _not_ properly license for redistribution.
For example, NVIDIA specifically allows their closed source drivers to be redistributed (for Linux / BSD only): http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html It is not legal distribute GPL software everywhere. Not all countries permit their people to run OS's that can tunnel encrypted traffic (squid and SSH), or sniff traffic out of the air (wireless acrd and ethereal).
And those laws varying in locale. Whole different issue.
But when you redistribute software without a license, that is a pretty universal issue.
OpenSUSE is 100% GPL until modified (like Fedora). The fact that 99.9% of its users make it non-GPL compliant so they can play their MP3s and DVDs doesn't change the fact that when you download its all GPL.
Actually, Novell/SuSE have _not_ removed all the software from OpenSuSE they have licensed. But they are getting close with 10.0.
Keep in mind where their home base is. Frankly, any move made against them by a US software company would only generate sympathy, and could be potentially unsuccessful given MS's rather poor track record n EU court's lately.
Illegal redistribution is illegal redistribution. It's not debatable.