Re: esd

[Gleef <dzol virtual-yellow com>]

On Tue, 5 Jan 1999 raster@redhat.com wrote:
> On  4 Jan, Robert Bihlmeyer scribbled:
[snip]
> ->  I am not sure, but I think *de*compressors are not patented. Putting
> ->  the mpg3 code into a seperate shared object or binary should protect
> ->  esd from those problems.
> 
> yes they are - if you sell a decompressor you can be asked to pay
> rolaties. now there is a big fuzzy line as to if you have to pay if
> they decoder is pat of a distribution - like a linux dist - but aslong
> as its fuzzy no distribution that wants to stay legal will touch this.

True, but I don't see any legal problems with putting hooks in esd for the
user to tie in their own mp3 encoder/decoder (or any other proprietary
format).  That takes all the patent and licensing issues out of both esd
and the distributions hands, and puts them in the users.

Whether hooks like that would help or hurt esd is a different question, I
don't know enough about how its put together to have an opinion on that.

-Gleef


Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this should not be construed as legal
advice.