Re: MP3 decoder packaged with XMMS
The Fluendo website does not claim anywhere that they "avoid the
patent licensing problem". Rather, they want to sell you a
proprietary plugin together with a patent license. Apparently
they have acquired rights to sell licensed plugins.
Fluendo provides our customers both with the actual plugin for
GStreamer and the needed patent licenses. Customers who already have
patent licenses themselves can license the plugins separatly.
URL: http://www.fluendo.com/products.php?product=plugins
What is the basis for their conclusion that any patent license is
"needed"? Did a court of law hold the patents valid and infringed? If
not, then no license is "needed." They may have signed a license
because it was cheaper than fighting the patent, but that is different
than being "needed" and that certainly does not trigger GPL Section 7,
which is what I believe was the initial issue raised by this thread,
i.e. whether Section 7 is violated because some software is distributed
that someone else think may be covered by a possibly valid patent. Such
a situation does not trigger GPL Section 7, nor does it forbid
redistribution of GPL'd code.
--Dan
--
Daniel B. Ravicher
Legal Director
Software Freedom Law Center
1995 Broadway, 17th Fl.
New York, NY 10023
(212) 461-1902 direct
(212) 580-0800 main
(212) 580-0898 fax
ravicher@softwarefreedom.org
www.softwarefreedom.org
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