Writers of applications should be discouraged from using patented anything that 
they 
could reasonably have avoided, and doubly discouraged from using non-free 
licenses. I agree with distros refusing to distribute software that 
voluntariliy uses
patented algorithms or non-free licenses. After all, the "interoperability" 
defense seen
with codecs does not apply in such cases. 

If authors of code get the idea that a restrictive license bars them from every 
distro's
repos and limits them to PPA's, that is a powerful inducement to remove 
patented 
routines and release under a free license.

Codec patents, however, we have no choice but to fight, as free codecs too 
often can't
be played by pay operating systems whose users may be the target audience of 
videos
and audio files. Also the owners of codec all remember how the patent FUD over 
.gif
killed the format and nobody wants to be next in line for that.





On 02/13/2014 at 2:25 PM, "Ralf Mardorf" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>On Thu, 2014-02-13 at 20:06 +0100, Antoine Thomas wrote:
>> Cinellera depends on patented codecs and techno. The code itself 
>is
>> open source but you can't build it and distribute it.
>> 
>> This is the same for linuxsampler and steinbetg's vst technologie
>
>Amen! _But_ different countries = different laws, if the distro, 
>resp.
>distros repository is only for a special country, for some 
>countries it
>wouldn't matter.
>
>I often wanted to become a DEB and ARCH packager, but I never ever 
>will
>become a lawyer, so respect to the people who build official 
>packages
>for DEB distros and Arch. I decided to package not anything for an
>official repository. I'm not a coward, I had a previous conviction 
>for
>being a pacifist. However, fighting against war is easier than 
>fighting
>against (IOW ignoring) international patent laws.
>
>
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