On Tue, Aug 06, 2002 at 03:02:59AM -0500, David Starner wrote: > At 05:09 PM 8/6/02 +1000, Anthony Towns wrote: > >You mightn't have noticed but Debian is distributed by mirror sites > >hosted by a bunch of universities, ISPs, companies, and others all around > >the world. There's plenty of blood to be gotten from those turnips, and, > Many of whom also distribute Red Hat or other mp3-decoder carrying > distributions.
Oh, sorry, my bad I wasn't paying attention. Debian includes mp3 decoders too; there's been rumours and mild scaremongering about whether mp3 decoding has been patented, but nothing definite. OTOH, there has been something definite about mp3 encoding. Debian doesn't include any mp3 decoders. > The amount of money to be got from a unknowing non-commercial > infringer is also pretty limited. The issue isn't how badly we can be hurt. > Distributing large amounts of software that we didn't write, and that > we don't have a large body of software patents to trade on, inherently > opens us up to lawsuits. Only in the same sense that breathing can open you up to lawsuits. > The owners of the > patent have gone after free MP3 encoders, but I've never heard of them > going after free MP3 decoders. And most independent analyses I've have > said that the claim that the patents cover decoding is at best shakey. This is exactly the issue; claims that no one would bother suing us over what we distribute is entirely irrelevant. > We also don't have any patent-free place to put the mp3 players. If someone wanted to find a bandwidth sponsor somewhere that it would conceivably be possible to host patent encumbered stuff, or DMCA-violating stuff, or similar, and wanted to spend the time learning about the issues involved enough to talk to lawyers about ensuring that it was done in such a way that wasn't directly or indirectly violating US laws, we might be able to one day have such a place. Cheers, aj -- Anthony Towns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/> I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred. ``If you don't do it now, you'll be one year older when you do.''
