| Re: [AD] legal stuff: patents |
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On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 11:08:58AM -0400, Chris La Mantia wrote:
Hi,
<snip>
> > did someone already check whether allegro not hurt any patent claims ?
>
> Lots of things like GIF support aren't included in Allegro to avoid patent
> claims, but it's almost impossible to avoid claims entirely. I'm sure some
> company will probably show up someday claiming a patent on "a method of
> displaying images on a display terminal" and sue every graphic library
> programmer on earth....
Yes, that's why we're fighting against an legalization of software
patents in Europe. Here swpats are illegal, but 30.000 mostly trivial
and broad patents are granted. Some people, i.e. MEP McCarthy of the
British Socialists (!) want to legalize them. This especially engangers
the SME's as well as the opensource developers.
In the USA (IMHO) patent only claim commercial use. The European swpats
will also be useable to forbid non-commercial work with patented ideas.
We - of the FFII/Eurolinux Allicance - are doing hard lobby work, to
prevent this disaster.
It would be really great, if the allegro project could help us.
Perhaps you could present our information on the website and contact
all companies known to use or contribute allegro.
regards,
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