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Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunnery
When you said 'dubious' I thought you meant hacker tools or gambling tools but it seems that many of the illegal software are simply things like DVD players and MP3s. Multi media stuff. Linux seems to have its own version of most software out there and I wonder why The community hasn't invested in an alternative for flash and DVD players.
DVD playing applications by companies who don't pay the DVD Copy Control Association are illegal in "The Land Of The Free" (and I think there's a slight chance in Europe also). Unlicensed MP3 players are similarly illegal.
Flash, again, is probably illegal to reverse-engineer in the US (though there are things like gnash) and, actually, the free community have come up with an alternative to Flash it's called "several technologies in HTML5".
I'm not sure whether they made "hacking tools" illegal in Europe or not but I'm guessing not as I've not read of any arrests. Similarly not heard of any arrests here in the UK for possession of "hacking tools" so I think that managed to die a death also, thankfully so or I'd be in possession.
The great thing about this forum is that the members are knowledgable about a whole range of subjects. i didn't even know there was a dvd liscense 'thing' or an MP3 restriction . I guessed maybe flash were a little defensive but it never occurred to me about the other stuff. Also, I didn't know html5 was developed by the open source community. AND I thought hacking was illegal everywhere.
What's the deal with the Chinese tech community? Are they using the same Unix and linux? Or is there a Chinese hack on all of the systems? I don't think the Chinese government are too heavy on western copyright laws. I'm surprised there is nt a massive influx of Chinese operating systems where they don't have to pay the windows lisence fee or the Mac hardware. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the post.
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
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DVD playing under Linux was probably illegal in the US form the get-go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS
The DMCA allow one to circumvent the copyright protection to make short clips from legally owned DVDs only: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digita...ion_exemptions
However, in the real world that probably means that it's technically illegal to watch DVDs on Linux but it's unlikely anyone would be prosecuted for it but it still means anybody providing the means to get around CSS is still in a shaky legal position.
It appears that MP3 may be coming out of patent protection towards the end of this year, or not depending upon what happens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Li..._patent_issues
HTML5 isn't "free software" as such it's a set of specifications made freely available which anybody can use with no restrictions* to create anything they want. This means that things like first person shooter games can be written for the browser -- the sort of thing which, previously, only Flash could really do for example.
Illegal computer intrusion is, indeed, probably illegal in most countries. However, in Europe (and, I think the US) there was talk of making the possession of "hacking tools" illegal. That means having a copy of nmap to carry out audits of your own home network would be illegal and supplying nmap or something like Kali Linux would be a criminal offence.
As I understand it China officially uses their own version of Linux for government computers -- I'd epxect everyone else uses the same as most places in the world but with more pirated Windows than Europe and the US due, as you mention, to slacker copyright laws. It does seem that the Chinese government are now cracking down on copyright infringement or, at least, acting like it -- this is due to pressure from the US and other countries.
*There are DRM modules for HTML5 which are controversial.
Distribution: Debian Testing, Stable, Sid and Manjaro, Mageia 3, LMDE
Posts: 2,628
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Hacking is legal anywhere. Don't, like all the media, confuse it with cracking.
Open source is making advances on all fronts. Proprietary software owners are, in fact, having some rather large problems due to the speed of hardware development. They can't inovate nearly as fast as you can with an open source project. This is why, for instance, that most of the worlds auto makers are going to open source bases for their control systems.
They put proprietary code specific to their products on top of it.
This is much like Android. There is an open core and then some proprietary crap stacked on top.
MS just announced that there will be no more named Win versions. This is because they are emulating rolling releases and planning on offering Windows "as a service".
The problem for them is that they need a revenue source and think this is the way to get it from their OS.
I think this is a crock. While they do get revenue from Windows they haven't made a profit on any version since XP. Their profit comes from Office and suing people.
Dropping Windows and porting Office to run on any platform would be, in my thinking, more sensible. Get that albartros off their backs and try to look to the future for new "services" that they can charge for.
Don't get me wrong, I am not an MS hater. If it weren't for their fine efforts in developing Vista I would probably be still using their OS. So I am very grateful to their devs for giving me the incentive to switch to something more reliable.
There are barriers to the use of Gnu/Linux. These are constructs of a system dominated by, primarily, MS and Adobe. And they are fighting a rear guard battle to keep that advantage.
Problem is that the big chip and board makers are making a large chunck of their profits by making devices that are Linux kernel friendly as in Android devices. It is easier to make the hardware, across the board friendly to Linux too. So that is one barrier that is crumbling extremely fast.
There is little problem with about any format that you can think off that is not supported by perfectly legal, license wise, that can't be played by players run by Linux. There are jurisdictions that pass laws against some of those pieces of software. The US is at the top of that list along with other staunch defenders of freedom like Iran.
Back when reel to reel tape decks became a commercially viable device for the general public the recording industry tried to claim it was illegal to purchase a record and then record it. This was "theft". As most people were doing this to preserve their record by playing the tape and renewing it occasionally they disagreed. The Supreme Court also disagreed and that ruling has held up through courts down the line. Audio CDs are free and clear of that hurdle and so are video tapes. There is no ruling on DVDs to the contrary. Because the people that make the content and the DVD manufacturors don't want it to be litigated because they really don't have a leg to stand on.
They could, however, influence some regulatory agencies to rule against copying of DVDs. This is not law. It is not supported by law or cases law. But it makes it possible to sue people over and as long as that threat works it is as good as law. To challange them you need deep pockets.
So you will not find, for instance, the fine DVD ripping tool Handbrake installed by default on any major distrobutions OS. There are some respins that undoubtedly do have it by default still, I installed one several years ago that had it and that is how I learned about it. There are other tools that will do the job too. And ones that will encode them back onto a DVD.
In the case of some of the lower quality DVDs you can actually rip the things, do some editing on them and have a higher quality DVD as the result.
MS is not open sourcing Video Studio (if I have the name correct) because they are competing successfully with open source, Gnu products that are more popular. They are doing so that they can get the imporvement they need to compete selling it as a service. A service that will almost certainly be hosted on a Linux server.
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