Re: libdts patent issue?

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To me the distinction is clear: you have to add something to the algorithm before you arrive at patentable matter. You apparently consider the addition (a computing device with a memory) to be irrelevant, and hence you don't see a distinction. The addition should be

Re: Re: libdts patent issue?

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: If you provide the program loaded into a computer, ready to execute, then the court may likely hold that you infringe. If you publish a printed piece of paper with the program's source, then you likely do not infringe. Like I said somewhere, non-tech-savvy judges

Re: libdts patent issue?

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
Michael Edwards wrote: Dualism is on the retreat, processes and machines are on an equal footing, and what makes something not an abstract idea as such is that it be susceptible of industrial application to reliably achieve a particular useful result. In practice, that's another distinction

Re: generated source files, GPL and DFSG

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: However, when I found that (some of) the graphics had a source from which they could be compiled, I concluded two things: - To satisfy the GPL, the source for those graphics needs to be distributed as well, so it must be in the source package. Probably correct.

Re: generated source files, GPL and DFSG

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
Andreas Barth wrote: Obviously e.g. fonts are no programms, even if they are in main. Read TrueType instructions and say that again! Some fonts are most certainly programs. PDFs are arguably executables designed for a PDF interpreter. But let's not get into that again right now. -- To

Re: Is an upgrade to the Open Publication License possible?

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think that documentation currently in main that uses the OPL could be salvaged if we can convince the controlling body for the OPL to upgrade to a version that's compatible with the DFSG. I have not, however, examined the OPL carefully enough to determine if this is

Re: Public Domain and Packaging

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
Sean Kellogg wrote: There is no such thing as software that isn't copyrighted. He means software written after 1988, of course. All original expression that is fixed in a tangible form is immediately copyrighted (at least, that's the U.S. rule). Since the passage of the Berne Convention

Re: Question about license compatibility

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
On Saturday 23 July 2005 04:41 pm, Francesco Poli wrote: On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 00:03:56 -0700 Sean Kellogg wrote: Anyone else have thoughts? Yes, I have one: |3. The licensee agrees to obey all U.S. Government res- trictions |governing redistribution or export of the software

Re: libdts patent issue?

2005-07-24 Thread Arnoud Engelfriet
Nathanael Nerode wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To me the distinction is clear: you have to add something to the algorithm before you arrive at patentable matter. You apparently consider the addition (a computing device with a memory) to be irrelevant, and hence you don't see a

Re: EUPL draft

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
OK. Problems found. Please forward these to the appropriate authority, since I couldn't work out how to. Distribution requirements require the provision of way too much information about the licensor. Geographic and electronic address? Come on. Geographic address is a matter of privacy,

Re: Re: libdts patent issue?

2005-07-24 Thread Arnoud Engelfriet
Nathanael Nerode wrote: Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: If you provide the program loaded into a computer, ready to execute, then the court may likely hold that you infringe. If you publish a printed piece of paper with the program's source, then you likely do not infringe. Like I said

Re: off topic again

2005-07-24 Thread Nathanael Nerode
Michael K. Edwards wrote: Patent is not copyright; you don't obtain a monopoly on describing your method, you obtain a monopoly on its commercial application. No patent prohibits you from making a computer program implementing any algorithm you like; but if you sell it as a solution to the

Re: EUPL draft

2005-07-24 Thread Francesco Poli
On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:23:33 +0100 Rich Walker wrote: Ivo Danihelka [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: On Fri, 2005-07-22 at 18:35 +0200, Ales Cepek wrote: I would like to ask, if anybody here can say that the EUPL draft would be compatible with the Debian Social Contract. Oh my goodness,

OT: How I learned to stop worrying and love software patents

2005-07-24 Thread Michael K. Edwards
[Note to d-l readers: the subject is tongue-in-cheek, mmmkay? Film reference.] On 7/24/05, Nathanael Nerode [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Michael K. Edwards wrote: Patent is not copyright; you don't obtain a monopoly on describing your method, you obtain a monopoly on its commercial application.

Re: generated source files, GPL and DFSG

2005-07-24 Thread Francesco Poli
On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 03:17:59 -0400 Nathanael Nerode wrote: My gut instinct is no, it's fine, put it in main, because the compiler is not required by the system, since the system functions fine without recompiling the graphics (and will continue to). I may be wrong, though! Huh? Are you

Re: Is an upgrade to the Open Publication License possible?

2005-07-24 Thread Francesco Poli
On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 03:37:05 -0400 Nathanael Nerode wrote: And, of course, the license options are non-free, but nobody uses them anyway. I wish this were true... :-( I recall seeing those clearly non-free options used more than once (and take into account that I haven't seen so many OPL'd

Re: Question about license compatibility

2005-07-24 Thread Jeff Licquia
On Sat, 2005-07-23 at 21:46 -0700, Sean Kellogg wrote: On Saturday 23 July 2005 08:04 pm, Jeff Licquia wrote: On Sat, 2005-07-23 at 17:11 -0700, Sean Kellogg wrote: This is a difficult situation that is worth commentary. Assume for a moment that the U.S. has some strict export

Re: OT: How I learned to stop worrying and love software patents

2005-07-24 Thread Pedro A.D.Rezende
Michael K. Edwards wrote: ... On 7/24/05, Nathanael Nerode [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ... I invite you to question the assumption that algorithms are mathematics. My preferred US dictionary (American Heritage, third edition) has it that an algorithm is a step-by-step problem solving procedure,

Re: OT: How I learned to stop worrying and love software patents

2005-07-24 Thread Michael K. Edwards
On 7/24/05, Pedro A.D.Rezende [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Algorthms are, in a general sense, semiotics, for the step-by-step problem solving procedure processes data. When the processing is to be done by a digital computer, the instruction set in which the algorithm can be encoded sets and

Re: Is an upgrade to the Open Publication License possible?

2005-07-24 Thread Evan Prodromou
On Sun, 2005-07-24 at 03:37 -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote: Well, these are the problems with it: Lemme see if I can condense these down. I had a hard time reading your response. Add explicit permission to make and distribute modified versions. Remove or soften requirements for

LGPL module linked with a GPL lib

2005-07-24 Thread Loïc Minier
Hi, The GStreamer suite ships a lot of plugins which are dlopened() when needed. Some of them link with GPL libraries. I received a bug report (#317129) to change the copyright files of libgstreamer0.8-0 and gstreamer0.8-mad to GPL. The upstream README mentions the situation, so I

Re: LGPL module linked with a GPL lib

2005-07-24 Thread Jeff Licquia
On Sun, 2005-07-24 at 20:50 +0200, Loïc Minier wrote: The GStreamer suite ships a lot of plugins which are dlopened() when needed. Some of them link with GPL libraries. I received a bug report (#317129) to change the copyright files of libgstreamer0.8-0 and gstreamer0.8-mad to GPL.

Re: OT: How I learned to stop worrying and love software patents

2005-07-24 Thread Michael K. Edwards
I wrote, in response to Prof. de Rezende: Yes, all very lovely, I've read Douglas Hofstadter's books too. ... This was a cheap shot, and I'm ashamed to re-read it. I didn't mean by this that Prof. de Rezende was not right to ground the algorithms are mathematics perspective in the primary