severity 65794 normal severity 65796 normal severity 65797 normal thanks On Sat, Jun 17, 2000 at 02:27:23PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote: > freeamp is a MP3 decoder. Decoding of MP3s is patented. > > http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/swdec.html > says about license fees for MP3 decoders: > > mp3 Software Decoders/Players distributed free-of-charge via the Internet > for personal use of end-users > > No license fee is expected for desktop software mp3 decoders/players > that are distributed free-of-charge via the Internet for personal use > of end-users. > > [you have to pay license fees in all other cases] > > This seems to conflict with the DFSG. freeamp must go to non-free Actually, patent issues don't concern DFSG, the copyright/licensing issues do. But yes, the packages would move to non-free... I am not completely convinced that this is a real threat. There was no threat for a lawsuit ever by the Fraunhofer or Thomson people against a free MP3 decoder that we shipped (although yes, this can be a problem for those CD vendors that make >10000 copies). The mp3licensing.com or thomson-multimedia.com sites have no clear reference or text of a patent that covers decoding. Rumour has it that decoding of MP3s is a simple Fourier transform, and there's a prior art for that process which dates back to the start of the century, so the patent wouldn't be valid, if it existed. Until further investigation (i.e. until someone quotes a patent that our free software packages infringe), let's downgrade the severity of these bug reports below release-critical. The debian-legal people should be able to tell us more about stuff on http://www.mp3licensing.com/patents.html. -- Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
