[vorbis] Here is a link to what they say about "Other Formats"

[Joe )]

[Warning: following message is full of opinions.]

On Wed, Dec 13, 2000 at 02:34:04PM +0200, Cherniavsky Beni wrote:
> I think you hadn't considered the point of "based works" which the GPL protects.
> The question is whether some company can split a private development from the
> free non-patented code, *improve* it in some way and patent the improved one.
IMO, such a business model would not last long. If you license out a marginal
(or even a major) improvement to something freely available, people aren't
going to bite - they're going to use the worse one and not pay more.

> Maybe if Xiph had patents, then the company's patent would be infringing on
> Xiph's and Xiph could deny that company a lisence unless they in turn adopt
> the same free lisencing policy.
Possible, but any business that makes such an enhancement will probably find
a way to patent their innovation as a completely new work, avoiding such an
issue.

> I don't know patent laws well (a great deal of what I do came from reading this
> mailing list :-), so I don't know if this point that exists in sofware
> copyrights
> (and is one of the main ideas of GPL) can be parralled in patents.
As I explained above, I don't think it can, or needs to be. The GPL isn't (to
me) about taking away rights - that includes the right to make proprietary
products. It does _give_ the right for me to say you can't use my work without
following guidelines I give.

And I oppose any software patents, "open" or not. You shouldn't be able to
patent mathematical properties. Even if you do it "openly", there's no reason
why you should own a property inherent to the universe. Maybe "open" patents
have more validity/purpose in non-software fields.

-- 
- Joe "piman" Wreschnig <piman at sacredchao.net> - http://www.sacredchao.net
  He who fights and runs away lives to run another day.               -><-

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'vorbis-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.