3 ms·

It's probably in the same situation as ffmpeg, x264, lame, (previously) gif encoders etc are or were. If it is true that non-US countries do not acknowledge th

by 0x0 13y ago

It's probably in the same situation as ffmpeg, x264, lame, (previously) gif encoders etc are or were. If it is true that non-US countries do not acknowledge the related patents, it would be a very interesting situation if anyone were to make it integrated in a git fork of the mainline kernel. Could we end up having a richer git branch/repo hosted on "kernel.eu"? Would others do pull requests on top of this, thus meaning further kernel patches (related or not so related) get interwoven? Would a "us compatible" mainline linux stagnate while an off-limits-for-americans "eurolinux" flourish? Probably not for just a fringe fs driver that can stay separate. But what about possibly-US-patent-covered patches to the core, if they provide enough benefits?

WildUtah 13y ago
Source code can't infringe US patents because source code isn't a machine or a process or a composition of matter. A machine running a Linux kernel can be plausibly accused of infringing thousands of active US patents even without FAT support. There is no version of Linux that does or could ever pass a patent clearance review in the USA. The distinguishing character of the VFAT patents is that Microsoft threatens to sue people over them. I don't know of any cases they've won so far and no patent is actually infringed until a jury says so.
- caf 13y ago
  Does this mean that Fedora is wrong when they say "This means that we cannot include MP3 code, even as source."? https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items?rd=ForbiddenItems#MP3_Support https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items?rd=ForbiddenI...
  - cbhl 13y ago
    No, because Fedora releases binaries.
    - caf 13y ago
      I was referring to the "even as source" part. (They make package maintainers excise MP3 code from upstream tarballs and repackage those, not just patch it out of the compiled code - it's a massive pain).
  - Amadou 13y ago
    I think the key part of that paragraph is in the last sentence: "... in order to serve the goal of providing and supporting only free and open source software that is not restricted by software patents by default. " So, not a legal reason, but a philosophical reason.
derefr 13y ago
> Would a "us compatible" mainline linux stagnate while an off-limits-for-americans "eurolinux" flourish? That sounds like a silly way to go about things. A much simpler solution, if this really was a problem: a kernel compile-time config option to disable (and disable the selectability of) patent-encumbered kernel modules. "Check this to compile a kernel for use in the US", etc. There'd only be one codebase; the only active maintenance would be in making sure that if a new patent-encumbered module were added, that an entry for it also got added to the configure switch.

by 0x0 13y ago

WildUtah 13y ago

Source code can't infringe US patents because source code isn't a machine or a process or a composition of matter. A machine running a Linux kernel can be plausibly accused of infringing thousands of active US patents even without FAT support. There is no version of Linux that does or could ever pass a patent clearance review in the USA. The distinguishing character of the VFAT patents is that Microsoft threatens to sue people over them. I don't know of any cases they've won so far and no patent is actually infringed until a jury says so.

caf 13y ago
Does this mean that Fedora is wrong when they say "This means that we cannot include MP3 code, even as source."? https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items?rd=ForbiddenItems#MP3_Support https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items?rd=ForbiddenI...
- cbhl 13y ago
  No, because Fedora releases binaries.
  - caf 13y ago
    I was referring to the "even as source" part. (They make package maintainers excise MP3 code from upstream tarballs and repackage those, not just patch it out of the compiled code - it's a massive pain).
- Amadou 13y ago
  I think the key part of that paragraph is in the last sentence: "... in order to serve the goal of providing and supporting only free and open source software that is not restricted by software patents by default. " So, not a legal reason, but a philosophical reason.

derefr 13y ago

> Would a "us compatible" mainline linux stagnate while an off-limits-for-americans "eurolinux" flourish? That sounds like a silly way to go about things. A much simpler solution, if this really was a problem: a kernel compile-time config option to disable (and disable the selectability of) patent-encumbered kernel modules. "Check this to compile a kernel for use in the US", etc. There'd only be one codebase; the only active maintenance would be in making sure that if a new patent-encumbered module were added, that an entry for it also got added to the configure switch.