"sv" == seth vidal skvidal@phy.duke.edu

sv> We've had to go through this with Fedora Extras quite a sv> bit b/c lots of folks want things like the nvidia and ati sv> binary-only drivers or mp3 playing or dvd decrypting and sv> we just can't do it.

DVDs are definitely an issue, but Debian ships MP3 players in main, and the binary nVidia drivers are available from non-free[*], so someone thinks it's allowable.

(I actually get my nVidia drivers from Dell's dell-nvidia packages, which use their DKMS framework to handle building them for new kernels.)

Claire

* The copyright file in the Debian nvidia-glx package includes a message from nVidia saying that (1) binary kernel module packages are okay, and (2) splitting the components of the upstream nVidia driver package into separate distro packages is okay. The nVidia guy goes on to say ``Please feel free to redistribute the NVIDIA graphics driver.'' -- the license file for the driver also says

2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the operating Linux system may be copied and redistributed, operating provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).