On Sunday 2008 December 28 20:06:39 Per Inge Oestmoen wrote:
Kai Ponte wrote:
Even with Linux versions, you still often have to possess a licence key that either phones home or has some local activation.
This has never been the case with (open) SuSE, Fedora or Kubuntu. If "local activation" means the typing in of a serial number it cannot be compared to Product Activation, even if it is still an unnecessary nuisance. But any program that phones home has to be rejected without fail.
In particular, the ability to use, modify, and distribute the software without communicating with "upstream" is a requirement of the Free Software definition, Open Source definition, Debian Free Software Guidelines, and a requirement of the GPLv2 (in specific). Distributing a Linux kernel that requires such activation is almost certainly a violation of U.S. copyright laws. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. bss@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/