Hi,
Thank you all for your insightful comments on this thread [1].
I am cc'ing this reply to the maintainers of the lame package. I just
noticed that an fft.c file identical to Praat's one is also included in
the lame source package [2]. Unlike what is done in the Praat package, an
entry for that file is included in the lame's debian/copyright file [3]
in the following stanza:
Files: libmp3lame/fft.c
Copyright: © 1988-1993, Ron Mayer
© 1999-2000, Takehiro Tominaga
License: GPL-1+
Comment:
No version of the GPL is explicitly given.
If I understand from the discussion in this thread correctly, the above
is not enough. Is that correct?
Best,
Rafael
[1] https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/[email protected]
[2]
https://salsa.debian.org/multimedia-team/lame/-/blob/master/libmp3lame/fft.c?ref_type=heads
[3]
https://salsa.debian.org/multimedia-team/lame/-/blob/master/debian/control?ref_type=heads
* Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> [2026-03-17 11:48]:
On Tuesday, March 17, 2026 11:37:03 AM Mountain Standard Time Michael Stehmann
wrote:
Hello,
you are right, the patents might be obsolete. I haven’t looked into this
in any depth. That would also involve a considerable amount of work.
But the left over text is not really a license.
So the author might put his work under a free software license now
(one or more of more than 150 or a new one).
Until he will do it, there is a legal uncertainty.
Kind regards
Michael
I agree. The best way forward would be to contact the author and see if he will explicitly
release his work under a DFSG-free license.
That doesn’t resolve any potential patent questions, but it would resolve the licensing
question. Debian and the free software movement in general tends to ignore *potential*
patent problems because every piece of software could potentially be claimed to exist
under one of the very liberal patents that has been granted, and only worry about patents
when the a patent holder makes a *claim* that is substantiated in court. Partially this is
because, even when there is a claim, a large number of them do not end up being
substantiated under scrutiny.
--
Soren Stoutner
[email protected]
