Re: Could someone clarify this...
Kevin Mark <kevin.mark@verizon.net> writes:
> Hi,
> I was just reading an interview[0] of someone from the 'Freetype' project
> 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.
--
\ "Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we |
`\ are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire |
_o__) and nobody got scared." -- Jack Handey |
Ben Finney
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