On Tuesday 03 February 2009 08:11:41 Kevin Kofler wrote:
Eli Wapniarski wrote:
> Problem here is that it isn't a Fedora issue, but a Redhat issue. It
> isn't a legal issue either but a sales decision.
RHEL sales decisions should not affect Fedora. Unless there's a strong
legal liability issue involved (and I don't see how, given that Fedora is
not based in China or one of those other countries where some flags of
currently-existing (we're not talking about the WW2 Germany flag here!)
countries (or "provinces" ;-) ) are banned), I don't see how such sales
decisions should be relevant to Fedora. If we ban everything which is
banned in some country, we'll have nothing to ship!
Absolutely agree. There is no legal liability issue in every country other
than in China. Which means that if you include the flags people living in the
Peoples Republic of China will not be able to legally use Fedora. Which means
that any maverick out there could potentially face prosecution depending on
the mood of the authorities over there or, potentially have every download
site with a Fedora distro blocked by The Great Firewall of China. Meaning the
people over there won't be able to get Fedora at all. Putting the flags in a
third party repository allows us users to install the flags if we want them
(we do want them don't we). If a maverick chooses to install them, then they
can do so with eyes wide open if, of course, The Great Firewall of China will
allow them access to the repositories.
I realize for most of us it's a freedom of speech issue. I agree it sucks big
time. But, we don't live in China. And with 3rd party repos we can be
"polite"
while having our cake and eating it too. The Chinese can get Fedora without us
picking a fight we can't win.
Eli
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.