[Freeciv-Dev] Re: sound development

[Dan Sugalski <dan@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:59 AM 6/25/00 +0300, Tuomas Airaksinen wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 23, 2000 at 01:57:24PM -0400, Dan Sugalski wrote:
> > At 12:06 AM 6/23/00 +0300, Tuomas Airaksinen wrote:
> > >And there are gpl'd mp3 encoders like bladeenc, so what's really
> > >the problem?
> >
> > The MP3 encoding scheme's patented. It doesn't matter whether there are
> > encoders (or decoders, I think) under the GPL (or LGPL, or Artistic, or
> > BSD, or whatever)--they're all illegal unless the authors have a license
> > from the patent holder.
>
> So mpg123 devels (and others) are criminals?
In some jurisdictions, yes.

> Hmm...
>
> Actually, who do you think the lawyers would attack if we broke the law?
> You or me? There is no company to attack against (which is good, of 
> course) ;)
Doesn't matter, really.

> I think we should not be so worried about those law issues, that's just
> realism.
We're asking people to respect our intellectual property claims (i.e. the 
GPL), which pretty much obligates us to respect other people's. If we are 
going to ignore them, then we've really got no cause to complain if someone 
wants to violate Freeciv's license.
                                        Dan

--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski                          even samurai
dan@xxxxxxxxx                         have teddy bears and even
                                     teddy bears get drunk