Internet wide chat

[Bernie Innocenti]

Urko Fernandez wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 13:13 +0200, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
>> The "download codecs yourself" (aka "piracy at home") is an
> 
> I don't think you can call it piracy when all you are doing is using the
> free implementation of a codec. This is completely legal in some
> countries, you are not stealing anything, as a matter of fact, even when
> you download unlicensed codecs, you are still not stealing it, let alone
> pirating it, it's just copyright infringement.

IANAL, but I'd like to point out what the FSFE explained at
the FOSDEM 2007 keynote, the way I understood it.  My friend
Andriani, an IP lawyer, is on Cc to correct me in case I said
something incorrect.

Unlike common belief, creating, distributing and using patented
software is not _illegal_ per se, not even in countries accepting
software patents.

There's no law specifically disallowing the use of patented
ideas.  There's however law that grants the patent holder the
right to ask you for a compensation if you use their idea.

This is very different from copyright law, which is being enforced
proactively and is punished with fines and in some cases even jail.

In other words, a patent breach is not trouble between you and your
country.  It's between you and the patent holders. If they do not
notice, or do notice but do not care to go after you, then you're
totally fine.  Legally and morally.

And even if they _do_ ask you, patent law only allows patent holders
a compensation proportional to the market opportunity involved in
the specific breach.  So, if I download an mp3 codec, I can be
asked to refund the market value of an mp3 codec.

Sweet, eh? :-)

-- 
   \___/
   |___|    Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
    \___\   CTO OLPC Europe  - http://www.laptop.org/