[sf-lug] SF-LUG meets Sunday 3 September 2017

[Bobbie Sellers]

On 08/28/2017 11:48 AM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):
>
>> I see that Black Lab Linux is downloadable via the
>> Distrowatch torrent site and will be getting a copy.
>> BLL is "special" Linux with lots of stuff to make it
>> legal for the USA and any nation with similar
>> copyright laws so the full version with all of the
>> legal software to access commercial DVDs and
>> the like costs about $50.
> ITYM the sponsoring company, PC/Open Systems LLC, offers (among other
> things) a Linux distro called Black Lab Enterprise Linux.  This is _not_
> two 'versions' under different licensing terms but rather just one,
> based on the MATE desktop environment (DE).  It is also available in
> several alternate respins to feature DEs other than MATE:  PC/Open
> Systems LLC itself offers these respins:  GNOME3, XFCE, Cinnamon.
> Additionally, a third party intends to soon offer an LXDE respin.
>
> The Black Lab distro (yet another Ubuntu variant, BTW) is freely
> downloadable and can be used without any additional license permissions.
> PC/Open Systems LLC _also_ offers optional support subscriptions for an
> annual fee, to benefit enterprises and other users who feel they need
> same.
>
>> I can only imagine that the downloadable version does not have the
>> licensed software to access protected material.
> No.  Black Lab Enterprise Linux includes the usual open source
> codebases, plus a number of proprietary (_but redistributable_ without
> fee) hardware drivers, firmware BLOBs, and A/V codecs the company deems
> popular with desktop users.
>
> This has nothing particularly to do with the copyright laws of the USA.
     Not quite what they are saying at the Web page.  I was reminded of 
Mandriva which supplied similar
proprietary tools and I could have written something similar when I was 
using it.  As a matter of fact
at the time I did tell people that I was using Mandriva for very much 
the same reasons.
<http://www.blacklablinux.org/> and to quote:
>
>
>     Use of Non-Free Software
>
> The goal of the Black Lab Linux project is to provide software that 
> fits within the guidelines of free and opensource software. We also 
> are a consumer distribution and realize that convenience and support 
> of all different devices and codecs are necessary. So with that we do 
> provide software that is not governed by a free and open source 
> license in our repositories and as part of the main distribution. So 
> what does this mean exactly? It means that software and hardware 
> vendors do provide us with precompiled object code or blobs vs making 
> their source code available. While this does not introduce any kind of 
> legal or system stability risk to the users. Those who request to live 
> life by adhering to the Free Software Foundations policies will not be 
> happy using Black Lab Linux. We believe users should be able to use 
> their computer or devices any way that they wish too. This means 
> running programs to watch videos, music and consuming ebooks in any 
> format that they wish.

     Now you note that "running programs to watch videos, music and 
ebooks" can be done
without proprietary programs but they are all copyright protected 
materials which cannot
be watched without either special knowledge or those proprietary 
programs.  The proprietary
programs allow/**//*lega*//*l */decoding of protected materials.  For 
some people *legal *is
very important.  For others it is less so and using special knowledge 
easily found on the
net, circumvention of the *legally *applied copyright and regional 
protections can be
done.

     bliss

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