Re: Bug#158683: ITP: oggasm -- MP3 to Ogg converter
On Fri, Aug 30, 2002 at 01:36:47PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> In other words, if you write some free software, it's not your fault if
> some company decides 15 minutes or 15 years later that they had a patent
> on an algorithm you used, and sent packs of lawyers out to eradicate
> your software from the planet.
It might still be appropriate to move it to non-free, though.
We did that for GIF, in order to discourage use of the format, while
still allowing users who desperately needed it to install the packages.
This case seems similar, with the alleged patent-holder allowing
non-commercial use.
(I say "alleged" because I have not yet seen any basis for their claim
that decoding is patented. The FAQ at
http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/developer.html implicitly makes this
claim, but gives no details.)
Richard Braakman
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