Home
| Calendar
| Mail Lists
| List Archives
| Desktop SIG
| Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Blog | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU |
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 7:13 PM, Matthew Gillen <[hidden email]> wrote: > And that job may be very difficult, because figuring out exactly which > licenses go with which bits can be mind-numbing (unless they included a > separate "value added" directory with all the non-open-source stuff they put > in, which is unlikely). If you happen to know which version of Ubuntu it's > based on and have a copy of that handy, you might be able to do a diff of > some sort. But I imagine it would still be a royal pain-in-the-ass. > > Think about this: what if they added a single, proprietary driver to the > kernel package(s) to support some fancy 18-button mouse. How would you > figure that out if it wasn't documented (I'd be surprised if they > volunteered such documentation; it's not in their interest to help you > figure out what they changed). Furthermore, some OSI-approved licenses (the > BSD license is the prime example) allow derivative works that are > proprietary. So you might see a package that looks and smells like apache, > but is in fact their proprietary product (in this particular case they > couldn't still call it apache since the Apache Foundation is vigilant about > their trademark, so you'd get some help there). > > More to the point, IF they added something that isn't in base Ubuntu, in all > likelihood it isn't freely redistributable, so you'd have to remove it. And > then you'd be left with base Ubuntu. > > So the answer is, yes you could legally redistribute the vast majority of > whatever is on that CD. But it would be sort of pointless, since there are > already Ubuntu ISOs out there.
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups | |
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities. |