Steve Underwood wrote:
Outside the US you can't patent software or algorythms, and a codec is (usually) both of these, therefore not patentable outside the US. This is what allows things like the xvid project to exist, for example, which breaks several US patents... Fraunhoffer somehow apparently managed to get some in europe but it was never decided whether they were valid or not (commonly it is thought that they'd have failed under legal challenge as the wording of EU patent law is very clear).I didn't say one patent covered all the world. I said the patents on codecs exist all over the world. WIPO is simplifying this a bit, but its still pretty expensive to get a patent everywhere. I know of no country where the key aspects of a codec cannot be patented.
Interestingly even if they decide to allow patents in Europe there's a clause that says you're not infringing if you're using the patent for compatibility reasons - that could allow an asterisk codec (since it needs to be compatible with the phones at the other end of the call) without licensing.
Basically all the world is not the US - some of us can still write code without a lawyer looking over our shoulders (for now).
Tony
-- All your code belongs to Santa
Tony Hoyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Key ID: 104D/4F4B6917 2003-09-13 Fingerprint: 063C AFB4 3026 F724 0AA2 02B8 E547 470E 4F4B 6917 FWD: 413300 _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
