Re: Software patents and Debian
Bas Wijnen wrote:
> It would be illegal for us
> to distribute it to anyone else. We can of course claim that we don't know,
> and assume that the programmer knew what he was doing. This is not unlikely
> (actually, it's even true for me). This means we only have to stop
> distributing when the programmer does indeed get sued and loses the case.
It's not reasonable to claim that we don't know the mpeg-4 is patented.
It's well known.
> People do get sued for using the mpeg4 codec, IIUC. So does that
> mean we would at least consider it non-free? Or not distributable at all?
>
In some countries software patent isn't recognized. IMO, we shouldn't
put something in the non-free area, because it is illegal to distribute
it in some countries. I think we should put them in Non-US/Main.
But it seems that Debian ignore this issue. Maybe the Debian community
think it won't be sued since we don't make money of the distribution?
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