Patents, gimp-nonfree and LAME

["Paul C. Bryan" <email@pbryan.net>]

I have attempted to locate discussion on this issue before in 
debian-devel. If this particular issue has been addressed somewhere, 
please be gentle and direct me to it. If not:

I have noted that packages such as LAME will not be packaged in Debian 
(even under non-free) due to patent enforcement[1]. I have also noted 
that gimp-nonfree is packaged in non-free because it contains patented 
code supporting the GIF format (which has expired in the US recently but 
not in other regions of the world).

My question is: what are the guidelines on packaging code that has 
patented technology? Does GIMP's GIF support get distributed because 
Unisys is not actively enforcing its LZW patent, while LAME does not get 
distributed because Fraunhofer is actively enforcing its MP3 patent?

[1] http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/unable-to-package.en.html