2009/5/16 Liam R E Quin <l...@holoweb.net>: > On Sat, 2009-05-16 at 19:02 +0100, Dave Crossland wrote: > [...] >> However, patent problems mean we'd have to run this from a server >> outside the USA. > > That something is patented somewhere doesn't _necessarily_ preclude > its use... what exactly is the problem (reply privately if you > prefer).
AIUI, USA software idea patents cover usage of infringing software as well as writing such software. So if our server, located in Oregon USA, did the conversions, then the people who operate the server would have a patent liability. I'm not sure if just distributing files which are compressed with a patented compression scheme would be patent infringment liability though. The last thing I want is Microsoft, Bitstream or Monotype - known EOT patent holders - suing anyone involved in the Open Font Library for patent infringement. I'm not saying they would, I doubt that they would, and I hope they would not, but, I suspect they could, if we ran the conversion on the server and they wanted to attack us for some reason I'll leave to your imagination. >> I think promoting the fact that web fonts are here and now (well, by >> the end of the year they will be) and work cross platform on all major >> browsers is crucially important, so we should make this happen. >> >> What do you think? > > I think it's really excellent good idea! :-)