Hi folks, I'm sorry if this has been asked before, however I can't find anything on Google about this... As most of us know, the USA and EU have laws such as the DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive. Does WINE break these laws? Reason I ask, is that I wish to supply systems running Linux to some customers, and WINE seems like a good fit to run some windows applications (e.g. MS Office), however I just want to remain on the right side of the law.. If WINE doesn't break the DMCA, can someone briefly explain how you guys manage to make WINE support copy protection? Thanks
On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 8:21 PM, jtnire <wineforum-user at winehq.org> wrote:> Hi folks, > > I'm sorry if this has been asked before, however I can't find anything on Google about this... > > As most of us know, the USA and EU have laws such as the DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive. > > Does WINE break these laws? > > Reason I ask, is that I wish to supply systems running Linux to some customers, and WINE seems like a good fit to run some windows applications (e.g. MS Office), however I just want to remain on the right side of the law.. > > If WINE doesn't break the DMCA, can someone briefly explain how you guys manage to make WINE support copy protection? > > Thanks > >It doesn't. Enjoy using Wine!
> Enjoy using Wine!Oh don't you worry, I have been, and will continue to enjoy wine! My concerns is distributing it to some customers. Are you able to let me know, in outline terms, why it doesn't violate the EU Copyright Directive? Maybe it doesn't circumvent any protection at all? Thanks
And it ?only? reimplements an API, which is perfectly legal and will always be, no matter what these pseudo-superior-idiot-law-makers decide. Reimplementing something is legal. You have the right to build something better for yourself; you have the right to to compete, to choose ; you have the right to replace a broken or unstable bridge with one made by you. Do not worry, even if Wine were ever considered illegal, which I highly doubt, then there would surely be millions of ways of getting it -- it would only spice up the urge to reimplement the Windows API in a Free way.
> I am not a lawyer but I'd say you don't need to be one to discard > worries of this nature.Sorry, can you just clarify the above? Are you saying that I don't need to worry? Even if distributing WINE for commerical purposes?
So you're all pretty sure, that the implementation that WINE uses to support the running of copy-protected programs (e.g. games) is not in violation of DMCA or EU CD?
Hmm well that's good then :) Can someone please explain to me where the issue in that post I linked to above, came from? What was the issue orignally? I don't really know the inner workings of WINE.. Thanks
jtnire: You really should consult a Solictitor to find out the answer but the non-lawyer types have this to think about: The DCMA and other enforcement laws that relate to the enforcement of Digital Rights Management have no applicibility to Wine because there is no code included in the product release designed to bypass any form of encryption or operating system detection. There are many programs that will not run on Wine, in native mode, specifically because Wine is not trying to be Windows (TM) in any form. There are known security programs that will not function on Wine because they check for specific placement of code in some of the native Windows dynamically loaded library files (dlls). If you plan on including Wine in a commercial product you do need to keep in mind that it is licensed under the Lesser GPL v 3 and you do have to make available the source code, if requested. One other thing: Wine is developed using only Black Box discovery techniques. No "peeking under the hood" is allowed and code developed using other than Clean Room processes is removed and discarded. This is why code from the ReactOS project and others is not allowed into Wine unless the two statements are complied with. Lessens legal issues you know. That is the only legal issues I know of with Wine. James McKenzie -----Original Message----->From: jtnire <wineforum-user at winehq.org> >Sent: Apr 27, 2010 6:36 AM >To: wine-users at winehq.org >Subject: [Wine] Re: DMCA and EU Copyright laws > > >> I am not a lawyer but I'd say you don't need to be one to discard >> worries of this nature. > > >Sorry, can you just clarify the above? > >Are you saying that I don't need to worry? Even if distributing WINE for commerical purposes? > > > > >
Thanks folks, This is all the information I need to keep me happy :) I am distributing a lot of GPL and LGPL stuff commerically, so of course I give out source code when requested :) Looks like I got nothing to worry about, thanks for reassuring me folks Cheers jtnire