Re: MP3 decoder packaged with XMMS
On Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 03:54:12AM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
>
> However, the reason Debian continues to include the mp3 decoder library is
> that this patent, like so many other software patents, does not appear to be
> actively enforced. This is the standard Debian uses in deciding whether to
> distribute the software; Red Hat evidently uses a different standard.
Is that the standard Debian practise? Is that in the policy somewhere?
AFAICT Debian includes many packages that violate software patents, even
actively enforced ones. It's simply impossible to avoid. A very prominent
example is libts/libdca, where the developers closed the project due to
patent threats by DTC Inc.:
http://packages.debian.org/stable/libdevel/libdts-dev
http://developers.videolan.org/libdca.html
Another example from the multimedia area are the patents on MPEG-2/4/H.264
held and actively enforced by the MPEG LA (licensing association) and the
many packages in Debian that support MPEG-2/4/H.264 (and all of them support
MP3 as well):
http://www.mpegla.com
http://packages.debian.org/stable/graphics/ffmpeg
http://packages.debian.org/stable/graphics/vlc
http://packages.debian.org/stable/libs/libxine1
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/avifile-player
DISCLAIMER: I really do not want to troll here. It's just that Debian's
patent policy is unclear to the outside at best.
Diego
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