RFC: On-demand package installation API in kdelibs

[Lubos Lunak]

On Wednesday 28 of July 2010, Martin Sandsmark wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 09:16:48PM +0200, Lubos Lunak wrote:
> >  I'm not a lawyer, so I can't tell for sure (and Amarok already has
> > support for it now, just not as a generic KDE functionality).
>
> Yes, Amarok already has it, and GNOME already has it, but that doesn't mean
> they can't be targeted in a future lawsuit.

 My point was just that this API does not change Amarok's situation much.

> But this is all technicalities, and AFAIK laws usually care about intents.
> If it is our intent to help/recommend people break the law, then we can be
> held responsible for that (even if the technical implementation is distro
> specific), or?

 The intent of the upstream code would be that a component needed for 
proceeding is missing and should be installed if possible. That's all. It 
doesn't even need to care what the component is, it can be made generic 
per-format and 'mp3' doesn't have to be there explicitly at all. And, as far 
as I know, it is not illegal to install the component, it is just illegal to 
install it "incorrectly". Of course, with idiotic laws this all is hard to 
say.

> I'm not a lawyer either, though. Maybe we should mail the Software Freedom
> Law Center or something and ask?

 I don't know, I'm not a lawyer :).

-- 
 Lubos Lunak
 openSUSE Boosters team, KDE developer
 l.lunak at suse.cz , l.lunak at kde.org