Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-11 Thread Bas Zoetekouw
Hi Roland!

You wrote:

> Is there any way for xmedcon to become official without taking those parts 
> mentioned above out of the source code (which neither the upstream author nor 
> me would find very attractive).

Nope.  We cannot distribute software that doesn't have a proper license (the
Siemens stuff) or is affected by patents (the lzw stuff).  
Note that the source is distributed along with the binaries (as required
by GPL et al), so disabling the patented/non-free stuff without removing
it altogether, won't help you at all.

-- 
Kind regards,
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Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-11 Thread Anthony DeRobertis


On Monday, November 11, 2002, at 11:59 AM, Bas Zoetekouw wrote:

Nope.  We cannot distribute software that doesn't have a proper 
license (the

Siemens stuff) or is affected by patents (the lzw stuff).


Fortunately, the lzw patent expires this coming June.



Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-12 Thread Andreas Tille
On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, Bas Zoetekouw wrote:

> > Is there any way for xmedcon to become official without taking those parts
> > mentioned above out of the source code (which neither the upstream author 
> > nor
> > me would find very attractive).
>
> Nope.  We cannot distribute software that doesn't have a proper license (the
> Siemens stuff) or is affected by patents (the lzw stuff).
> Note that the source is distributed along with the binaries (as required
> by GPL et al), so disabling the patented/non-free stuff without removing
> it altogether, won't help you at all.
Could you please enlighten us how it is handled in packages like

   gimp1.2-nonfree - GIF support for the GNU Image Manipulation Program

or similiar?  Any references to apply this principle?

Kind regards

 Andreas.



Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-12 Thread Terry Hancock
On Monday 11 November 2002 11:02 am, Anthony DeRobertis wrote:
> Fortunately, the lzw patent expires this coming June.

Is that true?  That would be really nice!  (Finally, I can support buggy
old browsers in my web application). No sarcasm -- lots of people are still 
using them, and I'd like to use some GIFs to keep them happy (I'm not really 
going into production mode until June anyway, probably).

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com



Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-13 Thread Branden Robinson
On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 07:44:36PM -0800, Terry Hancock wrote:
> On Monday 11 November 2002 11:02 am, Anthony DeRobertis wrote:
> > Fortunately, the lzw patent expires this coming June.
> 
> Is that true?  That would be really nice!  (Finally, I can support buggy
> old browsers in my web application). No sarcasm -- lots of people are still 
> using them, and I'd like to use some GIFs to keep them happy (I'm not really 
> going into production mode until June anyway, probably).

I've heard rumors that derivative patents of LZW have been filed as a
gambit to keep the original patent from being effectively useful to
anyone.  Pharmaceutical companies play similar games (at least in the
U.S., where government-subsidized monopolies are considered an intrinsic
aspect of the "free market").

However, I've only heard rumors, not anything I'd consider definitive.

-- 
G. Branden Robinson| Communism is just one step on the
Debian GNU/Linux   | long road from capitalism to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | capitalism.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Russian saying


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Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-13 Thread Walter Landry
Andreas Tille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, Bas Zoetekouw wrote:
> 
> > > Is there any way for xmedcon to become official without taking those parts
> > > mentioned above out of the source code (which neither the upstream author 
> > > nor
> > > me would find very attractive).
> >
> > Nope.  We cannot distribute software that doesn't have a proper license (the
> > Siemens stuff) or is affected by patents (the lzw stuff).
> > Note that the source is distributed along with the binaries (as required
> > by GPL et al), so disabling the patented/non-free stuff without removing
> > it altogether, won't help you at all.
> Could you please enlighten us how it is handled in packages like
> 
>gimp1.2-nonfree - GIF support for the GNU Image Manipulation Program
> 
> or similiar?  Any references to apply this principle?

That would be a bug.  That package should be removed.

Regards,
Walter Landry
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-13 Thread Florian Weimer
Anthony DeRobertis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> Fortunately, the lzw patent expires this coming June.

There is more than one LZW patent on the world. :-(



Re: question about leaving lzw and unknown-license code in source

2002-11-13 Thread Branden Robinson
On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 02:36:08PM -0800, Walter Landry wrote:
> Andreas Tille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Could you please enlighten us how it is handled in packages like
> > 
> >gimp1.2-nonfree - GIF support for the GNU Image Manipulation Program
> > 
> > or similiar?  Any references to apply this principle?
> 
> That would be a bug.  That package should be removed.

Be careful when making non-free smaller, it will only piss off the
opponents of John Goerzen's General Resolution.  :)

-- 
G. Branden Robinson| Reality is what refuses to go away
Debian GNU/Linux   | when I stop believing in it.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | -- Philip K. Dick
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |


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