> Take a look at: > > http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/voip/index.en.htmlWell, outside of the Speex link, that page seems to be pretty old...> Is speex realy petant free or does patent free only means that > is is not patent by the speex authors? Who have checked that > speex doesn't violates patents others? I don't use IP here, > because most patents are only used to prevent other people > to be creative. > > Nonetheless, what the current patent state of speex?First, we (Xiph.org, me) obviously did not patent Speex. Also, during development, we were careful not to use techniques known to be patented and we searched through the uspto database to see if anything we were doing was covered. The only thing we haven't done yet for Speex is an "official" (done by a lawyer) patent search. If anyone is interested in funding such effort, that would be appreciated. That being said, we cannot offer any absolute warranty regarding patents. No company does that, simply because of the mess the patent system is. Even if you pay for a codec, you can't get the guaranty that nobody else owns a (previously unknown) patent on that codec. It's sad, but that how things really are. I'd say that any program you write that's longer than "Hello World" (and even that!) might be covered by a trivial patent (think 1-click shopping) you didn't know about. There are probably patents out there claiming rights on "using a computer for doing useful things" or something like that. So basically for Speex, all we can say is that we did our best to avoid patents. There isn't much more that can be done anyway, regardless of whether you're dealing with open-source or proprietary software. Jean-Marc -- Jean-Marc Valin, M.Sc.A., ing. jr. LABORIUS (http://www.gel.usherb.ca/laborius) Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada --- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'speex-dev-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Well, apparently, no pure software solution can be patented (hardware can), least that's what I saw on the national news here in the UK 2 weeks ago. Clive --- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'speex-dev-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Hi Jean-Marc,> Well, outside of the Speex link, that page seems to be pretty old...No, it is more actual then ever.>>Nonetheless, what the current patent state of speex? > > First, we (Xiph.org, me) obviously did not patent Speex. Also, during > development, we were careful not to use techniques known to be patented > and we searched through the uspto database to see if anything we were > doing was covered. The only thing we haven't done yet for Speex is an > "official" (done by a lawyer) patent search. If anyone is interested in > funding such effort, that would be appreciated.OK, im a bit more quit now, because that is the important first steps to look to the patents and see what could properbly make troubles. Of course lawyers cost money and i guess that this is one of the reasons why they want patents in europe ;-). Perhaps it is a good idea, if the user of speex donate money for the check by a lawyer. Perhaps we can promote that, on the other hand perhaps it is better not to waken sleeping dogs (pit bulls). If you allow i talk to te swpat.ffii.org people and post your coment to the website. > ...> something like that. So basically for Speex, all we can say is that we > did our best to avoid patents. There isn't much more that can be done > anyway, regardless of whether you're dealing with open-source or > proprietary software.Yes, that is true. I know this very well and i only wanted to know if you take care about that point. You do it like i have expected it. I would also only look to the patents and see how i can wrap them. That's all a developer can do and perhaps the user of the library od the products made with it should donate money to get a lawyer paid. This is good for all people are affected in any way by speex. Best Regards, <p><p>Carsten <p><p><p>>> Jean-Marc ><p>--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'speex-dev-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Hi all, <p>i have readed all the realy sad stuff about software patents in europe and what allread exists. There is one side related to speex and i dont know if this is allready discussed here. Take a look at: http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/voip/index.en.html Is speex realy petant free or does patent free only means that is is not patent by the speex authors? Who have checked that speex doesn't violates patents others? I don't use IP here, because most patents are only used to prevent other people to be creative. Nonetheless, what the current patent state of speex? Best Regards, <p><p>Carsten --- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'speex-dev-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.