Re: Likely illegal programs in Knoppix 4.0.2 CD?
Dear Markus,
On Mon, Dec 19, 2005 at 12:50:02PM +0200, Markus Laire wrote:
> I'd like to create a remaster from Knoppix 4.0.2 CD which doesn't
> contain any likely illegal programs (e.g. any program/library allowing
> MP3 playback/encoding)
>
> Can anyone help me of what programs/libraries in Knoppix 4.0.2 CD are
> likely illegal?
> - uses mp3-technology (e.g. libmad0, cdda2wav, xine, kaffeine -- what else?)
I think you are confusing a few things here. MP3 itself is not illegal.
The Fraunhofer MP3 encoder scheme is patented and has to be commercially
licensed for ENCODING. mpg321 (not 123) is an mp3-compatible free/open
source player that is, to the best of my knowledge, considered to be
legally OK for distribution. It does not use any proprietary code.
Btw. Fraunhofer claims to also have patented the entire "idea of lossy
compression" in some more or less inofficial statements, not only MP3.
So, Ogg-Vorbis, JPEG and any other lossy compression would be "illegal"
as well if you follow this interpretation of that patent. We already
know that GIF, PNG and HTML are also illegal, right? Welcome to the
wonderful world of software patents (which we, luckily, do not have yet
in Europe).
> - can play encrypted DVDs (does knoppix have any such programs?)
The CSS decryption algorithm is "illegal (de-)obfuscation" without a
valid license. You are not allowed to distribute it under US law.
Therefore, no CSS decryption is included in Knoppix (otherwise you would
not be allowed to distribute it in the US), though it WOULD be legal for
private use in Europe, AFAIK, just not for distribution. You can play
unencrypted DVDs. Which may or may not be illegal in some countries,
too. You will have to check with your local lawyer. I can only tell for
Germany that you are legally allowed to play your own, bought and
licensed DVDs, no matter if they are encrypted or not.
> - Any other likely problems? Encryption?
If you believe that encryption is a problem, then you will have to
remove KDE, the Linux kernel and most likely any other program that can
do more than plain text. You will end up with an empty CD. Probably not
even that, because you could interpret the data encoding scheme of an
empty data track as lossy encryption as well, which makes it illegal for
copy and redistribution in terms of the DMCA...
The thing that I personally worry about is the proprietary Java runtime
engine with its difficult legal implications, and Acrobat reader
(version 4 is not as bad as 5 and up). The latter will probably be
removed in Knoppix 4.1 because kpdf is now better. :-)
With kind regards
-Klaus Knopper
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