On Wed, Dec 18, 2002 at 10:14:16PM -0500, Geoffrey Antos wrote: > I believe that it is safe to go ahead and implement S3TC texture > decompression code in DRI. > ><snip> > > Thus, there are many indications that S3TC can be used for Open Source > projects without fear.
You don't understand how patents work, do you? All of those people (except OpenIL, anyway) have licensed the algorithm itself. The algorithm is freely-available (it's even part of the patent documents). The problem is that S3 haven't released the patent to the public domain, and so they can sue whomever they want if they're using the patent without an appropriate license. Just because they haven't sued OpenIL doesn't mean they won't. Considering the financial state S3/SonicBlue are in, I wouldn't be too surprised if they soon become one of the many companies who only stay in business because they decide to arbitrarily assert their patent rights. Patents aren't something which go away if they're not enforced (unlike trademarks). By implementing S3TC without a patent license, the DRI team would be opening the DRI project up for potential litigation. -- http://trikuare.cx ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.NET email is sponsored by: Order your Holiday Geek Presents Now! Green Lasers, Hip Geek T-Shirts, Remote Control Tanks, Caffeinated Soap, MP3 Players, XBox Games, Flying Saucers, WebCams, Smart Putty. T H I N K G E E K . C O M http://www.thinkgeek.com/sf/ _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
