[MPlayer-dev-eng] [OT] livna vs. freshrpms (was: Re: 64-bit issue in ad_faad.c)

[Reimar Döffinger]

Hello,
On Tue, May 01, 2007 at 03:15:15PM +0400, Vladimir Mosgalin wrote:
[...]
> > MAC code is GPL-incompatible and has been removed from SourceForge because
> > the maintainer lied to them about it (he even says so in COPYING). So while
> > it can be distributed, I'm not sure of what use it is.
> > 
> > AMR reference code is not distributable without explicit permission. If
> > freshrpms chooses to do something illegal, well, I won't stop them.
> 
> I don't understand this legal part. The only packages that could be
> distributed legally are in core/extras, and all other stuff, like mp3
> support can't be legally distributed anyway?

Well, sure if you ignore 80%-90% of the it is somewhat similar. Except
that even in the remaining 20 % or so (basically USA) you still simply
can not know if there is any problem (no deterministic way to see if a
patent applies).
In addition:
>  (a) Except as otherwise provided in this title [35 USCS Sects. 1 et
>  seq.], whoever without authority makes, uses or sells any patented
>  invention, within the United States during the term of the patent
>  therefor, infringes the patent.
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/patent/35uscs271.html)

I probably am missing something, but this would not cover distribution
of software, so only the user would be infringing if forgetting to get a
proper license.
In addition I do not know how the term "illegal" is defined, but I would
say infringing on a patent is not illegal, it is just infringement, which
entitles the patent owner to certain compensations:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/patent/patent.part3.table.html#chapt29

But much more importantly if we wanted to do a good effort not to infringe
any single patent we would have no other choice than to stop creating
and distributing _any and all_ software, and not only from the multimedia
area because the effort to check is O(number of patents) whereas for
code it in theory it is much less, you only need to check where the code
comes from, and you only need to do it for each line that gets added (in
contrast to having to check all code every time a new patent is granted).
Also we can respect copyright here without even loosing AAC support so I
don't see much reason not to do it.

Greetings,
Reimar Döffinger