Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on August 30, 2002 02:18 AM
QUOTE " 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License. "ENDQUOTE<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... which is pretty important in this case -- it restricts CD vendors rights to ship to those few backward countries (like the one where I live) that allow software patents. So of course a GPL Encoder may exist despite Thomson's reported reluctance to license the patent -- but the authors (not Thomson) may have the ability to enforce GPL to limit my distributing it.
However I still don't understand why the Policy statement regarding free-of-charge distribution disappeared from the Thomson website. Does that mean that the author of a free decoder needs to apply for an individual license in his name, or does Thomson still issue a general license to free software authors?
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I forgot to quote GPL section 8
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on August 30, 2002 02:18 AM" 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
"ENDQUOTE<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... which is pretty important in this case -- it restricts CD vendors rights to ship to those few backward countries (like the one where I live) that allow software patents. So of course a GPL Encoder may exist despite Thomson's reported reluctance to license the patent -- but the authors (not Thomson) may have the ability to enforce GPL to limit my distributing it.
However I still don't understand why the Policy statement regarding free-of-charge distribution disappeared from the Thomson website. Does that mean that the author of a free decoder needs to apply for an individual license in his name, or does Thomson still issue a general license to free software authors?
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