Hi,
I was just reading an interview[0] of someone from the 'Freetype' projec
t
and he said:
...
Also, I still don't understand why Debian and Ubuntu keep distributing
patent-infringing code in FreeType, while they keep MP3 and DVD playback
out of their normal installs. I'm not even sure it's DFSG compliant...
...
Cheers,
K

[0] http://osnews.com/story.php/18166/I...eetype/

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Kevin Mark <kevin.mark@verizon.net> writes:

> Hi,
> I was just reading an interview[0] of someone from the 'Freetype' proj
ect
> and he said:
> ...
> Also, I still don't understand why Debian and Ubuntu keep distributing
> patent-infringing code in FreeType, while they keep MP3 and DVD playback
> out of their normal installs. I'm not even sure it's DFSG compliant...
> ...

Almost any interesting program, free software or otherwise, infringes
some unknown, non-zero number of registered software idea patents. If
that were the only criterion for a software work to fail the DFSG,
Debian would be pretty much empty.

My understanding is that Debian declares a work non-free if a holder
of a software idea patent is *actively enforcing* a patent that covers
the work, such that Debian cannot distrigute the work as free
software.

Fraunhofer has a track record of actively enforcing software idea
patents against the algorithms in MP3 encoding software. Thus, such
works cannot be redistributed as DFSG-free software by Debian.

Ditto the DVD-CCA actively enforcing against DeCSS.

I don't know whether that is true for any of the software idea patents
that cover FreeType.

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Ben Finney


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> My understanding is that Debian declares a work non-free if a holder
> of a software idea patent is *actively enforcing* a patent that covers
> the work, such that Debian cannot distrigute the work as free
> software.

Is there a known case where a holder actively enforces a patent that covers 
MPEG-4 video encoding?
I am asking, because x264 has been removed out of the Debian archive and the
re are video codecs disabled in Debian's FFMPEG...

Cheers,
Fabian



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On Sat, 30 Jun 2007, Fabian Greffrath wrote: 
>
> Is there a known case where a holder actively enforces a patent that
> covers MPEG-4 video encoding? I am asking, because x264 has been
> removed out of the Debian archive and there are video codecs
> disabled in Debian's FFMPEG...

Search for "MPEG LA patent litigation", for starters.


Don Armstrong

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