magenta wrote: > 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.
I believe the point was that since NVidia is distributing source code implementing S3TC with an unrestrictive licence, that they are just as vulnerable as DRI is. They might have a licence for their own use of the algorithm, but they can't transfer that licence to the rest of the world. This tends to imply to my non-lawyer eyes that the S3TC patent is very unlikely to be strongly enforced. If VIA wants to sue someone, they'll sue the entity with assets first. Or maybe they *have* made such a broad licence grant to NVidia, allowing them to redistribute the patent licence free of charge. In which case DRI can just include the S3TC code and use it under the NVidia licence. Allowing one party to redistribute patent rights but not another is hardly a "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" licence. Either way, DRI looks safe to me. And remember that this isn't a DMCA violation, just a patent issue. No one is going to jail, and it would be (non-legal advice here!) extraordinarily difficult to prove any actual damages. And there is no one involved with DRI with assets to pay such an award anyway. Really, the worst that can happen is that you will be forced to take the code out. Andy -- Andrew J. Ross NextBus Information Systems Senior Software Engineer Emeryville, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.nextbus.com "Men go crazy in conflagrations. They only get better one by one." - Sting (misquoted) ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.NET email is sponsored by: Geek Gift Procrastinating? Get the perfect geek gift now! Before the Holidays pass you by. 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
