kinect-audio-setup package and Kinect for Windows EULA

[Antonio Ospite <ospite@studenti.unina.it>]

Hi,

I am the maintainer of kinect-audio-setup[1,2], this package needs a non
re-distributable firmware so it downloads an archive from the Kinect
for Windows site at install time and extracts the binary blob from it.
Before doing so, debconf is used to ask the user to read the Kinect for
Windows EULA and accept it.

>From debian/templates:

  _Description: Do you accept the Microsoft Kinect for Windows EULA?
    In order to fetch the binary firmware needed by the
    kinect-audio-setup package, you need to agree to the End User
    License Agreement (EULA) of the Microsoft Kinect for Windows
    Software Development Kit:
    .
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/sdk-eula.aspx

However, it seems that a recent version of the EULA[3] permits the use
of the software only with Microsoft operating systems:

  [...]
  The software is licensed, not sold. By downloading, installing,
  accessing, or using the software, you accept all terms in this
  agreement. If you do not accept them, do not download, install,
  access, or use the software.
  [...]

  [...]
  1. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

    a. Installation and Use. You may (i) install and use any number of
       copies of the software (only when installed using the
       accompanying software installer package) on your computer to
       design, develop, and test your programs that run specifically on
       a Microsoft Windows operating system, and that are intended for
       use solely in connection with Microsoft Kinect for Windows
       sensor, and its associated drivers and runtime software, and no
       other sensor ("Kinect for Windows Applications"), and (ii)
       distribute your Kinect for Windows Applications, subject to the
       terms in this agreement.
  [...]

So the question asked by debconf may be somehow contradicting: if the
user states to accept the EULA then the download starts, but then the
EULA is violated by using part of the downloaded archive on
a non-Microsoft operating system.

I'd see three possible ways to sort this out:

  1. Change the question to ask the user to explicitly acknowledge that
     he needs to _ignore_ the EULA terms in order to be able to use the
     software on Debian, this may be more accurate than the current
     question but kind of borderline.

  2. Do not ask anything to the user if the EULA is not valid for our
     use case (i.e. we are not using the original installer?).

  3. Remove the package from Debian, if the EULA really forbids the
     _use_ of part of the Kinect for Windows software on non-MS OSes.

Any advice about how to proceed on this?

Thanks,
   Antonio

[1] http://packages.debian.org/sid/kinect-audio-setup
[2] http://git.ao2.it/kinect-audio-setup.git/shortlog/refs/heads/debian
[3] http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/sdk-eula.aspx

-- 
Antonio Ospite
http://ao2.it

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
   See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?