From: Thom Johansen <thomj_at_pvv.ntnu.no>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 12:42:47 +0100

[IDC]Dragon wrote:

>>SRS/WOW are patented or something by a third party. Without paying them
>>a large chunk of money, it'd probably be very difficult to get a license
>>to use it, and even WITH the money, it'd be impossible to GPL it, which
>>is a requirement.
>>
>>
>
>Is that really a problem? If license fees apply, they have been payed by
>Iriver already.
>If something is patented, it is published, not a secret any more.
>My guess is that GPL and patents don't conflict. In the various MPEG
>standards, there are lots of patents and still public code exists. You have
>to pay fees to the MPEG pool if you make a product from it, pay royalties
>per piece. In our case, the product is already there, the fees must have
>been taken care of by Iriver.
>
>
Are you absolutely certain that a fee is payed per hardware unit
and not per application? I think MP3 licenses are valid per hardware
unit, but I don't think this necessarily means all licenses work like
that. Would be truly wonderful if that was the case, though.

Thom
Received on 2006-02-24