Re: desktop-devel-list digest, Vol 1 #709 - 10 msgs

[Andrew Sobala <andrew sobala net>]

Alan Cox wrote:
> > > "interpret" an mp3, even though I have never seen the code used to
> > > produce the mp3, am I breaking the law in the US or EU?
> > 
> > It doesn't matter if you've ever seen any code implementing the
> > algorithm -- the codec is patented.
> 
> In the USA. Its important to stress that most of this is a US problem.
> The chinese, iranians, ... can all do this. Even if the proposed EU
> patent changes were to occur the EU would allow this under its exemptions
> for compatibility

The New Scientist has an article on software patents in ... uh ...
tomorrow's issue. I quote:

"And in any case, companies can just ignore the European system. In
2000, around 1 in every 6 US patent applications was filed from Europe,
and it's not hard to see why. The US is the biggest market, and the
USPTO offers much faster turnaround.... Then they can invoke
international trade agreements to ensure their US patents are honoured
in other countries."

This last sentence is interesting. It's the first I've heard of it, but
are there any agreements that mean US patents apply to European
countries? Since I live in the UK, any such agreements would suddenly
mean that MP3 and (possibly) JPEG patents suddenly apply to me...

-- 
Andrew

"Someone needs to make a 'woops' command that reverts the hard disk to
the state it was in 20 seconds ago."
		-- me