On Mon, Jun 12, 2000 at 09:09:01PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote: > On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, David Starner wrote: > > > > > > In the US they do. Surely someone in (say) the UK could package it - we > > > > > couldn't have it in the main section, but people living in countries where > > > > > software patents don't exist would be okay. > > > > > > > > The mp3 patent is a German patent also (hence it can't go into non-free). > > > > > > Why does it make a difference if it is patented only in the USA or > > > patented in Germany, too? > > > > I meant non-US. There's no reason to carry it in non-free instead of > > main - it's LGPL, and either way carries a decent chance of getting > > sued for it. (The patent on the encoder is being actively enforced.) > > What has this to do with non-US? > > non-free: it isn't free, e.g. uses patented algorithms like LZW or IDEA No, non-free is stuff that you can't charge money for distributing, or has other weird licensing issues like no commercial use. Most everything in non-free can't be put on a CD and sold. Stuff that can't be distributed can't go in non-free, since non-free is distributed via network at the very least. > non-US: you are allowed to use it in both the US and outside, but you > aren't allowed to export it from the US because it contains > cryptographic code Also contains patent-encumbered code that is illegal to distribute from within the US. Since lame infringes on a German patent, it can't go in non-us either. -- Nathan Norman "Eschew Obfuscation" Network Engineer GPG Key ID 1024D/51F98BB7 http://home.midco.net/~nnorman/ Key fingerprint = C5F4 A147 416C E0BF AB73 8BEF F0C8 255C 51F9 8BB7
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