Re: Dangerous precedent being set - possible serious violation of the GPL
On Mon, Dec 06, 1999 at 01:09:45AM -0500, Jeff Teunissen wrote:
> An example case would be the patent on the MP3 compression algorithm. If
> there is only one way to create an MP3 stream, then there's no way around
> it. If, however, there is another way to create an "MP3" that does not
> use the patented algorithm (not even an obfuscated or modified version of
> it), then you have found a legal way around it through
> reverse-engineering.
This is completely different. Up to this paragraph you were talking
about copyrights. The example you mention is about patents. You
can't "reverse engineer" patents -- the description of the patented
process is available to the public. (Well, it should be. The NSA
can get secret patents.)
Richard Braakman
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