Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> __/ [ Mark Kent ] on Wednesday 18 April 2007 12:00 \__
>
>> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>>>> Microsoft: Never Really Helping Open source
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>> | Microsoft is in news again for being rather unhelpful towards open
>>>> | source again, this over their ClearType technology.
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>>
> http://www.sda-india.com/sda_india/psecom,id,22,site_layout,sdaindia,news,16930,p,0.html
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/22pm5k
>>>>
>>>> Just like the case of DRM, the companies gain at the expense of the poor
>>>> customer.
>>>
>>> The infringing bytecode interpreter technology in Freetype2 has been
>>> disabled in Fedora and Red Hat builds for a long, long time now. I can't
>>> speak for other distros.
>>>
>>> "Is FreeType 2 Affected by the Patents?
>>>
>>> The answer is no for any recent build of FreeType 2, since it comes with
>>> an ?auto-hinting? module that was specifically designed to completely
>>> ignore the TrueType bytecode instructions.
>>>
>>> However, the source code for the bytecode interpreter is still available
>>> and can be toggled on at compile time, for those that want to use it
>>> anyway (because they purchased a license from Apple, or because they are
>>> in a country where the patents do not apply, etc.). For details please
>>> check the documentation that comes with your FreeType source package (it
>>> normally involves changing one configuration macro)."
>>>
>>> - http://www.freetype.org/patents.html
>>>
>>
>> Well, pretty much everywhere outside of the US, Australia and perhaps
>> Canada and Mexico (NAFTA?) do not recognise software patents, and
>> rightly so, in my view.
>>
>> This looks like one of those packages which should have a "US-free
>> trade" version and a "software patent free" separate binary versions,
>> rather like debian used to do for the encryption stuff.
>
> My thoughts exactly. Or bring SuSE back to Europe... or fork the thing.
>
You know, I'd not really considered this, but the whole indemnification
issue has no relevance outside of NAFTA and Australia anyway, since
everywhere else has a sane view on software patents... The
Novell/Microsoft deal is meaningless outside those areas.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
|
|