[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] (SuSE) multiple patches - please review!

[Michael Niedermayer]

Hi

On Friday 26 September 2003 20:28, D Richard Felker III wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2003 at 06:51:58PM +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > On Friday 26 September 2003 14:46, gabucino at mplayerhq.hu wrote:
> > > SuSE has come to the decision of removing MPlayer from distribution :(
> >
> > do u know why?
>
> This is just a guess by a dumb american, but I bet it has something to
> do with the eu vote on software patents...
the modified sw patent directive which the eu parlament passed 2 days ago isnt 
that bad (IMHO/IANAL), allthough its not final yet, it has to be passed by 
the council too

Article 3a (new)
Member States shall ensure that data processing is not considered to be a 
field of technology within the meaning of patent law, and that innovations in 
the field of data processing are not considered to be inventions within the 
meaning of patent law.

Article 5, paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Member States shall ensure that patent claims granted in respect of 
computer-implemented inventions include only the technical contribution which 
justifies the patent claim. A patent claim to a computer program, either on 
its own or on a carrier, shall not be allowed.

Article 5, paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Member States shall ensure that the production, handling, processing, 
distribution and publication of information, in whatever form, can never 
constitute direct or indirect infringement of a patent, even when a technical 
apparatus is used for that purpose.

Article 5, paragraphs 1 c and 1 d (new)
[1c ...]
1d. Member States shall ensure that whenever a patent claim names features 
that imply the use of a computer program, a well-functioning and well 
documented reference implementation of such a program shall be published as a 
part of description without any restricting licensing terms.

Article 6a
Use of patented techniques
Member States shall ensure that, wherever the use of a patented technique is 
needed for a significant purpose such as ensuring conversion of the 
conventions used in two different computer systems or networks so as to allow 
communication and exchange of data content between them, such use is not 
considered to be a patent infringement.


[...]
-- 
Michael
level[i]= get_vlc(); i+=get_vlc();		(violates patent EP0266049)
median(mv[y-1][x], mv[y][x-1], mv[y+1][x+1]);	(violates patent #5,905,535)
buf[i]= qp - buf[i-1];				(violates patent #?)
for more examples, see http://mplayerhq.hu/~michael/patent.html
stop it, see http://petition.eurolinux.org & http://petition.ffii.org/eubsa/en