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Ubuntu wants to start charging for use of repros by Mint

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Ubuntu wants to start charging for use of repros by Mint

Postby Gilgamesh777 » Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:55 am

Third, and I think this is a point other Linux news websites are ignoring, Clem claims he has been asked by Canonical's legal department to license the binary packages used by Ubuntu. To me this is a scary thought. Ubuntu is a base distribution for many projects, some of them (such as Mint and Kubuntu) are quite successful. Clem's statement makes me wonder if Canonical has approached other open source projects about licensing the right to access Ubuntu's package repositories. If so, what might follow? Would derivative distributions need to pay to use Canonical's packages? How would Canonical enforce such a policy, with lawyers, by blocking access to the repositories if a user isn't using Genuine Ubuntu? Canonical would certainly have the right to restrict access to its packages, they are on Canonical's servers after all. However, most Linux distributions are quite open about allowing anyone to access their software repositories and I wonder if Canonical might be acting in a short-sighted manner if they are trying to license access.

With these thoughts in mind I contacted Canonical and asked if they could shed any light on the issue. At the time of writing I have not received a reply. An e-mail to the Linux Mint project asking for details yielded much better results. Clement Lefebvre responded the following day and, while he wasn't able to go into specific details as talks with Canonical are still on-going, he was able to share a few pieces of information. When asked if Canonical was hoping to collect a fee for using their binary packages, Clem responded, "Money isn't a primary concern. Although the original fee was in the hundreds of thousands pounds, it was easily reduced to a single digit figure. The licensing aims at restricting what Mint can and cannot do, mostly in relation to the OEM market, to prevent Mint from competing with Canonical in front of the same commercial partners."

Clem went on to indicate Canonical has not offered any threats nor discussed enforcing any licensing terms. When I asked what Mint's plans were concerning the licensing deal Clem answered, "We don't think the claim is valid (i.e. that you can copyright the compilation of source into a binary, which is a deterministic process). With that said, Ubuntu is one of Mint's major components and it adds value to our project. If we're able to please Canonical without harming Linux Mint, then we're interested in looking into it. As negative as this may sound, this is neither urgent nor conflictual. It's a rare occasion for Canonical and Linux Mint to talk with one another and although there are disagreements on the validity of the claim, things have been going quite well between the two distributions and both projects are looking for a solution that pleases all parties.
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Re: Ubuntu wants to start charging for use of repros by Mint

Postby necromonger » Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:24 pm

free just went out the window!
asus p6x58 prem. mb
intel i7 3.4
ati 6970 hd vid
12 gig kingston hyper x 1600
lg dvd burner
asus 24 inch hd monitor
sda samsung 120 gig hd ultimate 3.5.2 boot drive
sdb samsung 250 gig hd ultimate 3.4.1
sdc seagate 1 tb drive mint 15
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Re: Ubuntu wants to start charging for use of repros by Mint

Postby Gilgamesh777 » Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:56 am

necromonger wrote:free just went out the window!


Most Linux Mint users will be using a mirror I think, and those mirrors are neither owned nor paid for by Canonical.
A list of mirrors: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors.
These mirrors are graciously made available by other parties, free for all. Mostly by universities and telcos. Canonical possibly can't afford to run its repositories if there weren't these other parties making mirrors available free of charge. That's what xenopeek (admin) said on the Mint forum. So Ultimate Edition should be safe too :D
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