Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio engine stuff

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio engine stuff
From: Kai Vehmanen (kaiv_AT_wakkanet.fi)
Date: to helmi  17 2000 - 11:25:55 EST


On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Paul Barton-Davis wrote:

>>who are they going to sue, a bunch of independent developers around
> Steinberg has a patent on something related to VST or ASIO. Suppose

Ok, I guess we should distinguish between valid (for instance a certain
algorithm or a combination of data structure and algorithm) and
insane (we've invented buffers!) patents. As I'm not an patent
expert, I don't know how easy this is, but I'd use common-sense here,
too.

> that the Linux audio world actually picks up steam thanks to the
> efforts of people on this list. Suppose some actual studios start
> buying and/or using Linux GPL'ed software instead of VST/ASIO
> stuff. Suppose that there is a perception of "momentum" to the whole
> thing. Do you really think that Steinberg is going to sit back and say
> "oh well, its just a bunch of independent developers ..."

Well, let's say the patent in question is a borderline case.
If some GPL project gets sued, we could first of all distribute
it's maintainance, so we'd have a wide international developer
group. We could move the whole project to a new country. While
doing this, we'd get loads of attention (Slashdot, Linuxtoday, etc.
would make sure that everyone gets to hear about it). Now, we could
still lose, but it shouldn't cost us anything (well, project not
commercial -> how could we pay). We'd just remove all offending code,
and write something to replace it. All this would be great PR for us,
and would damage Steinberg's reputation.

> My attorney friend was also telling something that I didn't know: when
> the US first decided to allow software patents, the industry trade
> groups were opposed to them! Their argument was that the vast majority

I'm not suprised at all. In my book, software patents are just a good
way for promoting domestic software industry. Let's say we have two
countries, A and B. In A, it's easy to get a "we invented cacheing"
type of patents. B's patent policy is much more strict. You have to
really come up with something new. Now, it's obvious that this
situation will affect software companies in these countries.
Companies in A can easily sue B-companies of patent infringements,
when they try to enter A's domestic market.

GPL'ed (and other free software) goes beyond these national limits,
and thus it can be used for protesting against these insane patent
laws.

-- 
Kai Vehmanen <kaiv_AT_wakkanet.fi> -------- CS, University of Turku, Finland
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/ecasound/ - linux multitrack audio processing
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/sculpscape/ - ambient-idm-rock-... mp3/ra/wav


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