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So can someone help me untangle how this relates to possible Zstandard patents? Back some time ago, when all public facebook git repositories had a patent "gra
by jepler 8y ago
So can someone help me untangle how this relates to possible Zstandard patents?
Back some time ago, when all public facebook git repositories had a patent "grant" document, there was some angst about what exactly this meant: https://github.com/facebook/zstd/issues/335 https://github.com/facebook/zstd/issues/335 -- this was considered "resolved" when facebook decided to distribute the software under GPLv2, though after reading the relevant sections of GPLv2 I can't say I follow why this was supposed to resolve any uncertainty around potential FB patents of zstd.
Under BCP79 it would be Facebook's duty to disclose any IPR it has in zstd; there are presently no such disclosures registered: https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/?draft=&rfc=8478&submit=rfc&doctitle=&group=&holder=&iprtitle=&patent= https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/?draft=&rfc=8478&sub...
As far as I can tell, this is good news for people who would like to adopt zstd!
- electrum 8y agoThe commit that dual-licensed under BSD and GPLv2 also "removed PATENTS clause": https://github.com/facebook/zstd/commit/4f73b3b55d83b082aad180816a5d336eff33a243 https://github.com/facebook/zstd/commit/4f73b3b55d83b082aad1...
- tensor 8y agoBSD doesn't have a patent grant, so doesn't this mean you are only legally free of their patent if you use the GPL code? Also, any independent implementation of the algorithm would be subject to patent fees?
- garmaine 8y agoGPLv2 doesn't have patent clauses either (that was the reason for GPLv3). So I'm extra confused.