[vorbis] Is GNU tested, I doubt it..

[Tom Bishop]

Whoa.. I'm just asking a question.. anybody know..
..see below.

> > Fact is, I would think that this stuff would be insanely difficult to
> > enforce,
> > monitor etc... and not at all a given that it is enforcable at all..
> >
> > (but I speculate.... ;-)
> >
> > ..anybody know?
>
> Do you wnat to be the first company to "fuck" an open source project?

Gee.. I'm mostly kibitzing.. I was looking for a Voice codec (which Vorbis
is not ;-) ..and now, since I am leaving the company I was looking for
codec kibitzing is simply an interesting pasttime.

I, personally, am hardly a threat...

But you say "first company" so you seem to indicate that this has never
been tested in court..  Which lends credance to my speculation that,
in fact, GNU is virtually untested.. And possibly vacuous legally.

> I think any major wrongdoing to a high brow project would get a bit of
> press and at least be moderately embarassing.
>
> Not to mention that the FSF and the EFF would likely step in.

Perhaps.. but sounds like so much swash-buckle.. no real teeth,
no real money backing..

Are there any incidents of these orgs waging real battle in court?
...against who? ..did they win?
(I am perhaps naive.. enlighten me!)

Gee.. what if Oracle thought it was junk, and decided to tread
all over GNU.. what would Richard Stallman, and EFF, and all the
altruistic programmers in the world do.. Oracle would bury them
in court..

> Not to mention the lawyers at icast shoudl someone abuse vorbis (not
> that really could ever come about, but you never know).

Why not.. license violations happen all the time...

I was talking about GNU license violations... I speculated that GNU license
has never been tested in court.. if you have precedence, please cite it..
Until contractual matters are settled in court, courts feel full perogotive
to
do whatever they feel best..

Courts in different localities work under different laws.. it is a quagmire.

> What Paul wants to do is kosher.  If Maxis decides the LGPL is in the
> way, we'll remove it. (although i honestly think in his circumstances
> things are kosher under the license).
>
> jack.

Paul and you are laboring over minutia in GNU licensing.. I am saying
that the GNU could be basically ignored by "fat cat" companies
that feel an advantage to do so..

If you can refute with real cases, and judgements, cool, but of course
speculation is what this email thingie is all about..

Please understand that I am only trying to understand..

You talk about GNU as if it was sacred..

I don't think the courts have ever even seen it, and doubt that it has
been tested..

That is all I am saying.

If you say that it has, and indicate what jurisdiction, and the docket
number
etc.. then you are saying something new..

It is certain that GNU means little to nothing in some country's legal
systems.

I am not saying that Vorbis has any "Major" problem, except in attempting to
overturn
MP3 without the monies that www.mp3licensing.com will provide to
Fraunhoffer..

..that will be a "David" vs. "Goliath" battle.

Vorbis will need real "fucking" balls for that one..

--- >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.