Ubuntu

copyright

Asked by jojogabriel

1. How can I make sure that my system has no copyrighted packages?
     I downloaded medibuntu and I want to retain only those that are free.

2. What applications will not work if I do the above? I have deleted the gstreamer packages that ends with multiverse.

3. Is it worth to use Ubuntu for multimedia task without the copyrighted codecs?

4. Where can I find information about copyright? For example, what country these copyright are valid.

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Soren Hansen
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Soren Hansen (soren) said : 		#1

If you want to rid your computer of all copyrighted packages, I suggest you reformat your hard drive as practically everything on your system i copyrighted. The license is an agreement between the copyright holder and the user of the software. Hence, if there's no copyright holder, the license is practically worthless. This, however, is probably not the answer you're looking for, but I felt it necessary to point out.

If you're worried about non-freeness of your system, I recommend the vrms (virtual RMS (Richard M. Stallman)) package.

I do not foresee many packages that will not work at all, but some might have limited functionality (eg. lack of mp3 playback capability), but most of the time there are free alternatives (Ogg/Vorbis instead of mp3, Theora instead of MPEG4, etc.).

Ubuntu is quite usable without the non-free codecs and the like, but you might find yourself in a setting where the lack of mp3 playback capability is a huge problem, so it's hard to say anything clever about the usability of Ubuntu for you without these things.

The copyright for each package can be found in /usr/share/doc/packagename/copyright . Other information of the same nature will also be found in that same directory.

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jojogabriel (jojogabriel) said : 		#2

Could you tell me how to use vrms? I'm a newbie in linux.

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Best Soren Hansen (soren) said : 		#3

Open a terminal, and run "sudo apt-get install vrms". That installs vrms. When that's done, just type "vrms" and the return. That gives you a list of packages that are "troublesome". Have fun!

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jojogabriel (jojogabriel) said : 		#4

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