I have been reading articles on many sites (used LQ search) but have not been able to answer my question... im wanting to know why distros cant package proprietary drives, software and codecs in the distros but can tell users just to download them when they have installed it?

Is this because they dont want to support the production of proprietary 'software' or do licenses say you cant package with a free distro?

For example Mandriva gives support for MP3 from the box, but SUSE doesn't, you have to download to get MP3 support... Linspire/Freespire gives you MP3 support but Freespire OSS does not.

the licensing on codecs like mp3 (appear to) prohibit distribution by third parties who do not have commerical licensing agreements. as such vendors like redhat do not wish to enter legal minefields by including these in their officail software. the end user is able to add this functionality at a later stage, but then the onus is totally on the end user for doing this, and the distro itself is 100% clean in the eyes of law and copyright stuff. Redhat has built a massive name for itself recently in the server market across the globe, and believe it'd be foolish to look at including potoentially legally questionable software for something as trivial as playing music, something it has little interest in commerically.

All right, so you can set up a repository and tell your users only authorized users can access these codec's and if people who are not do its not our fault because you signed end user...?

both.
The video drivers are not included for copyright reasons, thought some distributions make it harder to get the drivers than others.
mp3 support, is kind-of possible. But many people - including me - would like to see ogg becoming the new standard. And - of course they are avoiding proprietary stuff. There are also some problems with the gpl licence I've heard, but I don't think they are very dramatic.

That's a peculiar sentence.

All distributions are making installing the necessary packages very easy. But if you are completely new, you feel like you are operating a nuclear power plant.

I would also like to see ogg become the standard, I don't really like the idea of giving support to MP3 because its license is stupid and greedy... but so many people want to use it, thats the problem. In the distro im working on im trying to program the native Media software to request MP3 is converted to OGG... a problem with this is that some generic MP3 players and items like that (from what i have read) dont offer support for .ogg

Thanks for the feedback!

You don't have the right to distribute some software. Users have to get it from the source where they come from. It is written in the license terms that you can't redistribute it.
On the other hand, if the license was allowing it to be included with GPL software, it would become GPL software, since GPL extends to modifications and extensions.

What if he/his distro and repos reside outside of the US? somewhere that doesnt give a toss about their (and many other countries) laws. You could presumably just let users know it's illegal if they come from so and so and carry on. Until it's discovered you have weapons of mass destruction and harbour all the worlds terrorists of course and then the mighty US descends upon you in the name of god...

i digress, i'm just curious because i'm sure i've seen disclaimers for repos saying that if yo uare from so and so, it is illegal to use these.

Indeed, the laws are not the same everywhere.
Some copyrights are valid only in the US because they were deposited only in the US.
Moreother, software patents do not exist outside the US and some slave states. The EU doesn't take software patents for instance (some small countries in the EU do though, but not the big ones).
As a result, mp3 codec are illegal in the US and legal in most of the EU.

Yeah, I wouldn't want people to download illegal stuff, well I wouldn't want to recommend/give them the option to... that would give the distro a bad look and probably make people go back to the old way of think 'Linux = Hacking OS' Talking about that this is a good laugh - http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001...2056.2147.html

I'm not sure about the Aus Laws in regard to this, i'm sure they will be similar to the US. In Aus its pretty much (by the book) illegal to use an MP3 Player as we are not aloud to make any kind of music backup - Ripping is illegal we have very old technology based laws, time for an update... *apt-get*

What i'm still wondering is how Linspire and Mandriva do this, they package a lot of proprietary stuff, would this be because they pay for the license or as soon as you attach a price does it free up the ability to distribute?

www.stupidlaws.com

There is the law, and there is the application of the law. Fortunately those two things are two distinct things.

lol, don't worry we dont get busted for it... hehe, that would be kinda stupid if we did. I dont think the government can be stuffed updating the laws, they have more important things to think of like how the surf will be tomorrow