i've received numerous private emails from my previous post asking me if this torrent is legal so i want to post my response here for all to see rather than continuing to answer everyone individually.

---------- if i thought it was illegal i wouldn't distribute it and i for sure wouldn't have openly posted that "i'm the guy" on an official suse mailing list. if i ever found out that it was illegal i'd immediately stop distributing it. ----------

i'm an honest guy, i really am. the desire to be legal is one of the biggest reasons i got involved with linux in the first place. if i receive a credible notification from novell that it's illegal for me to do this i'll cease distributing it immediately, period. i'm a longtime netware admin and i love novell, i love suse, i love linux, and i love the linux community.

As I far as I can tell, that torrent of yours came online BEFORE the official release of SuSE 9.3, right? So, where's the "legal" aspect of that? Just curious. Anders

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 18:52, mb1-knetdome wrote:

i'm not the one who made the isos but those that did tell me they made it from original and official novell cds. my understanding is that they were released to some people ahead of the officlal release date and that that's where these came from. far as i know that's not illegal.

No, merely untrustworthy

...

As I far as I can tell, that torrent of yours came online BEFORE the official release of SuSE 9.3, right? So, where's the "legal" aspect of that? Just curious.

Anders i'm not the one who made the isos but those that did tell me they made it from original and official novell cds. my understanding is that they were released to some people ahead of the officlal release date and that that's where these came from. far as i know that's not illegal.

Oh well.. Just face it, you're distributing illegal software. Since SuSE 9.3 isn't yet released, it has to be a beta or release candidate copy. Agree? Good. All of us that are beta testing SuSE and/or Novell products are bound by a VERY strict agreement where no information, no data, no code, no nothing, is allowed to be distributed in any way, shape or form to no person, company etc. etc. whatsoever. Bottom line, what you're doing is illegal. I hope SuSE and Novell will hunt you and your "friends" down and prosecute you accordingly. Anders Norrbring Norrbring Consulting

mb1-knetdome wrote:

...

Since SuSE 9.3 isn't yet released, it has to be a beta or release candidate copy. Agree? Good.

it might be, but not necessarily.

...

Bottom line, what you're doing is illegal. I hope SuSE and Novell will hunt you and your "friends" down and prosecute you accordingly.

Anders Norrbring Norrbring Consulting

i've been contacted by someone from suse.de, i'll be totally forthcoming with them.

I just wanted to say that the above quote: I hope SuSE and Novell will hunt you and your "friends" down and prosecute you accordingly. is not only unnecessary, but a bit rude. We are all entitled to our own opinion, and we may feel free to speak it. Why make yourself appear like a jerk and add a snide remark just because you are right? How does that really help anyone. If you truly feel that someone is breaking a law, and you really want to become involved you should quietly report it instead of purposely trying to make someone feel bad. For me, I have moved my computers to Linux to avoid all of these legality issues of copyrights and licensing. It should also be noted that this person did indeed purchase the newest version, and was probably just a little too eager to try it out. - james

Philipp Thomas wrote:

"Anders Norrbring" [13 Apr 2005 19:14:40 +0200]:

...

Since SuSE 9.3 isn't yet released,

Wrong, since weekend some people on the German suse-linux list reported having received their box.

I guess they're pre-shipping the pre-orders. ;-)

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 11:28 am, mb1-knetdome wrote:

i've received numerous private emails from my previous post asking me if this torrent is legal so i want to post my response here for all to see rather than continuing to answer everyone individually.

---------- if i thought it was illegal i wouldn't distribute it and i for sure wouldn't have openly posted that "i'm the guy" on an official suse mailing list. if i ever found out that it was illegal i'd immediately stop distributing it. ----------

i'm an honest guy, i really am. the desire to be legal is one of the biggest reasons i got involved with linux in the first place. if i receive a credible notification from novell that it's illegal for me to do this i'll cease distributing it immediately, period. i'm a longtime netware admin and i love novell, i love suse, i love linux, and i love the linux community.

thanks.

I'd like to know how you validated your source of the torrent. You say your 9.3 is on order, you haven't received it yet. Since 9.3 isn't officially available from Novell/SUSE where exactly are you getting a real, legal copy? Is this torrent hosted by Novell? Have you received written permission from any of the "can't distribute this on your own without our permission" software vendors that are included in the official SUSE Linux releases? ie Real Player, I believe Adobe's Acrobat Reader, etc. Just curious, Stan

A simple way to define legal, for this particular case:

Can you get it from ftp.suse.com or novell.com site?

Yes, then it's legal. No, then it's not.

Really easy.

and really wrong, even suse disagrees with you.

No, it is correct. Have you ever wondered why some packages present on CD/DVD are missing on ftp.suse.com?

Sharing CDs does not mean sharing them through ftp/torrent/etc.

If you do not respect others rights why would you expect others to respect yours?

-Kastus

what part of "suse says it's not illegal." do you not understand?

...

what part of "suse says it's not illegal." do you not understand?

What part of the word "respect" do you have problems with?

i'm not the one who's been falsely accusing people so this is a really odd statement to come from your fingers. suse has my phone number, email address, and my home address so they can contact me at will. i was completely honest and respectful with the rep who called me -- there is no grounds whatsoever for your animosity. i respect truth, not fud.

"Pettit, Paul" [20050420 08:56]:

So I take it that SuSE has approved the torrent. That's very cool of them!

SUSE would never officially approve a torrent, that's for sure! Otherwise we would offer the FTP version at the same time we start selling a new version. Now could this thread *please* die? Philipp -- Philipp Thomas SUSE LINUX Products GmbH

Andreas Jaeger [Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:56:52 +0200]:

Philipp Thomas writes:

Please read the EULA, there's nothing in the EULA that forbids a torrent.

Nein, steht da nicht, sollte aber :) Zumindest solange nicht, wie die FTP-Version nicht online ist. Schönes Wochenende Philipp -- Philipp Thomas Arbeit: pth BEI suse PUNKT de SUSE LINUX Products GmbH Privat: philipp PUNKT thomas BEI t-link PUNKT de

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 16:59, Mayank Jain wrote:

...

But when i cat README or any other file, its filled up with all ASCII junk data. Nothing readable.

You get what you pay for

more accurately, you get what you download -- i downloaded from the exact same torrent and they work fine. sounds like he just hasn't completed the download yet. hopefully he hasn't corrupted it by mounting it while the same file is being downloaded.

Corrupted??? Jeez man!

But how can that be? An ISO is mounted Read-Only onto loopback (by default). Hence, i dont think so, its corrupted... or is it?

-- regards, makuchaku it might not be, i just said i *hope* it isn't. i've never mounted an iso image while it was being written to so i really can't say.