On Fri, Apr 08, 2005 at 08:31:22PM -0400, Raul Miller wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 08, 2005 at 07:34:00PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > If Debian was at least consistent.
> >
> > Why has Debian a much more liberal interpretation of MP3 patent issues
> > than RedHat?
>
> It's impossible to treat patents consistently.
>
> The U.S. patent office, at least, has granted patents on natural laws,
> on stuff that's already patented, on stuff with clear prior art, on
> trivial math operations and so on. Patents are being granted so quickly
> there's no way of even knowing what's patented.
>
> Or were you hoping that Debian would follow Red Hat's lead?
Even RedHat with a stronger financial background than Debian considered
the MP3 patents being serious enough to remove MP3 support.
Yes, Debian can choose to put a higher risk on their distributors and
mirrors - there's nothing wrong with this.
Note that this is a respose to Josselin's statement:
<-- snip -->
When there are several possible interpretations, you have to pick up the
more conservative one, as it's not up to us to make the interpretation,
but to a court.
<-- snip -->
It's simply silly to be extremely picky on copyright issues while being
extremely liberal on patent issues - the risk of a Debian distributor
being sued for patent violations (no matter how the lawsuit might end)
is definitely present.
> As for this particular patent, I'm not really sure what's being patented.
>...
Which one of the 23 patents they list do you call "this particular
patent"?
> Raul
cu
Adrian
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
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