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Re: [News] User Pays the Price in Microsoft Patent Disputes

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/                        |

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