[Mageia-dev] About panotools patent problem (and other problematic rpms)

Tue Feb 22 11:04:26 CET 2011

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 10:57, Michael Scherer <misc at zarb.org> wrote:
+> Le vendredi 18 février 2011 à 10:13 +0100, Philippe DIDIER a écrit :
+>> Just seen that mikala added panotools in the repository . (some
+>> algorythms library to build panoramic photographs)
+>> Very happy with this ! (thanks a lot...)
+>>
+>> That's one of the first patent problems we may encounter :
+
+Yes, that's a good sample to use to improve our policy draft.
+
+>> Long time ago,
+
+How long is a "long time ago"? because every patent has a term and
+here it may have expired.
+
+>> iPIX, a company from USA muliplied patent lawsuit against
+>> these free algorythms inventor and photographers using them (this
+>> company is now dead because of bankruptcy but the patent problem is
+>> still live... )
+>
+> Well, who own the patents now ?
+
+>From http://wiki.panotools.org/Ipix it looks a former competitor got a
+hold on all assets from iPix.
+
+On the decision/sorting out side, for this and for any other patent
+issue, do we document already (in source code or a separate file) the
+reasons to activate or not pieces of a software (or to exclude them
+from packages), because of some patents?
+
+List of questions to check would be at least:
+ - what is exactly covered by what patent (reference, registration,
+territory/ies for which it has been registered)?
+ - where is it implemented exactly in the source code? (
+ - who owns this patent?
+ - did the patent holder announce his clear intention upon it? (that
+is, is he using it to control/restrain use or not? *)
+ - are there obvious prior art that could make this patent obviously invalid?
+ - what is decided and when (and what may change the decision, later)?
+ - what would be alternative ways to implement the function (if the
+patent does not just cover the function, but a specific implementation
+of it)?
+
+* one does not necessarily register a patent to be offensive with it;
+here, we knew about iPix, what about the new holder?
+
+Btw, a draft policy for patents management was discussed among
+founders and other people (lawyers) months ago and a tentative summary
+written by me here:
+http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=software_patents_policy .
+
+Cheers,
+
+Romain
+