Multimedia is a patent minefield. All important techniques, formats and standards are covered by broad and trivial patents that harm progress and make independent implementations hard or impossible. Thus MPlayer and the other free software multimedia players, like xine, VLC, avifile, gstreamer and especially FFmpeg, which provides the framework all of the above players use, are seriously threatened by software patents. Already companies are succeeding at driving multimedia libraries out of existence with legal threats.
The Council of the European Union has adopted its so-called "Common Position" on software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit of big multinational (mostly non-European) corporations and Ireland and to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which comprise the majority of the European software industry) and free software.
If the European Parliament fails to rally an absolute majority (367) of all members of the European Parliament - not just an absolute majority of the attending members - for substantial amendments in July, then the Council's directive will become law and the hunting season for US-style software patent enforcement in Europe will begin. Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance level.
But not all is lost yet as long as you decide it is time to make a difference and take action. This is our last opportunity to fend off software patents worldwide, there will be no second chance for the foreseeable future.
Signing petitions will not suffice. Contact your local EU representatives and educate them why software patents are a bad idea in the first place and why they must attend that parliament session to vote against them. Make it clear that they need to stop the machinations of the Council of the European Union and reaffirm the power of the EU parliament, the only democratically elected EU institution. For in-depth information and starting points to get active visit the NO Software Patents! campaign, the software patent page of the FFII and NoSoftwarePatents.com.
4g3nt_Smith wrote:Thats on pretty much every Open-source Media Player's website. Looks like the US isn't the only country with idiots at the helm of copyright law.
Yeah, we should be able to steal other people's inventions and get away with it! YEAH!
Because every fucking piece of Open-source software steals some stupid fucking developers shitty ideas. Get back to coding that shitty fucking browser of yours you fucking cunt.
I believe that you should be able to protect your work and your inventions. The US version of the patent laws and the enforcement of them is not the right way though.
I think software for $$ needs to get the fuck off of public networks and be made illegal for attacking the open source community "business model"
Yeah, thats it... they need a red light district on the internet where they can flash us their tits and then try to put their hands on our wallet so those of us that don't want to pay can not be treated like crimminals for driving on the rest of the internet
4g3nt_Smith wrote:Thats on pretty much every Open-source Media Player's website. Looks like the US isn't the only country with idiots at the helm of copyright law.
Yeah, we should be able to steal other people's inventions and get away with it! YEAH!
You're a fucking dipshit.
You really need to read up on software patents and exactly what the scope of the patent entails.
As it stand, somebody could patent a scroll bar, a task bar, a drop down menu.
It's much more complex than it seems.
All important techniques, formats and standards are covered by broad and trivial patents that harm progress and make independent implementations hard or impossible
What's the deal?
The deal is that unless a company has tons of money to pay licensing fees for any and all bits of code implemented, it will go under.
Hence the death of open source.
Last edited by duffman91 on Sat Jul 02, 2005 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
4g3nt_Smith wrote:Thats on pretty much every Open-source Media Player's website. Looks like the US isn't the only country with idiots at the helm of copyright law.
Yeah, we should be able to steal other people's inventions and get away with it! YEAH!
When their not charging for it theirs no harm done.
Someone writes media algorithms independently for free, and provides them for free.
Large company decides to buy the idea once it becomes widely used and, through legislation, make sure no one else can use it and they can force people to pay for it. Then, through legislation, also make sure that no one can ever write anything that even closely resembles it, thereby making sure no independent developer can provide such a free tool in the future as an alternative.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Wait, no... It sounds more like harnessing and monopolizing the market on the shoulders and backs of people who didn't want it used that way to begin with.
Dr_Watson wrote:if you're not charging for it... i don't see the harm.
:icon14:
This will be the death of open source if it continues. Computing is a patent minefield, as pretty much anyone can find their way around and (maybe accidentally) rip off previously patented code/method when developing new, free, better and improvable applications.
