Am Sonntag, 28. Dezember 2003 17:08 schrieb Adam K Kirchhoff:
On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Jacek [iso-8859-2] Popławski wrote:
On Sun, Dec 28, 2003 at 10:23:17AM -0500, Adam K Kirchhoff wrote:
Now that there are patches available to support S3TC compressed textures on Radeon cards, are there any plans to integrate those patches into the DRI source tree?
I think there is one little problem:
- S3TC included into DRI CVS - DRI CVS copied into XFree86 CVS - XFree86 makes release - RedHat puts new XFree86 in distribution - S3TC patent holder sues RedHat
So maybe it's better to put patches/binaries on unofficial websites and in p2p?
Why not just leave it up to RedHat, then, to either leave the code in or pull it out?
Very, very true!
That's exactly what I would have suggested. There are NO "software patents" in the EU (EPÜ) at least here in Germany.
We have asked (S3/VIA etc.) so many times for advice, but haven't had any definitive answer, even sometimes NO answer at all.
So let's put it in and see "what will happen".
Here in Europe (Germany) the patent "owner" have to "fight" (defend) his patent. Without that it can be deleted...
Maybe we should host mesa3d and DRI in a "save" country.
I think using an external library (such as the already mentioned stuff from 3dfx) for compression/decompression would solve potential problems. Just passing the already compressed textures to the chip should be no problem IMHO, Mesa/DRI would just rely on the external library for compression (and decompression for software fallbacks). So distributors wouldn't have to worry, and end users could install the external library if they want without the need to patch and compile everything.
Another possiblity would be to #ifdef everything out per default - disabled code shouldn't be a problem (if some algorithm is patented, it is open to the public anyway). That would still mean everybody needed to compile Mesa/DRI themselves, though.
Roland
btw I don't think you can lose a patent, even in europe. You can lose trademarks if you don't defend them. If a patent is actually valid and can be enforced (bascially court will decide this, not patent office) is a different matter of course.
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