[SCM] FFmpeg packaging branch, master, updated. debian/0.svn20090303-1-3-g1b87bf2

Thu Mar 12 14:32:56 UTC 2009

The following commit has been merged in the master branch:
commit 0d6c728aa0f3b3257cdc5e92f9547a3edf433e6f
Author: Fabian Greffrath <fabian at debian-unofficial.org>
Date:   Thu Mar 12 14:49:48 2009 +0100

    Remove patents.txt

diff --git a/debian/patents.txt b/debian/patents.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 235a931..0000000
--- a/debian/patents.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,88 +0,0 @@
-
-The MP3 audio coding format
-===========================
-
-   Much has already been said about MP3 and the huge patent portfolio of
-the MPEG members, especially the Fraunhofer institute. Eric Scheirer's
-MPEG, Patents, and Audio Coding FAQ [1.1] is an attempt to "inject
-some sanity in what is becoming an increasingly heated discussion
-about patent rights surrounding MPEG technology, especially for audio
-compression". It also has a few words about other patented products
-covered in this document.
-
-[1.1] http://web.media.mit.edu/~eds/mpeg-patents-faq
-
-
-The AAC audio coding format
-===========================
-
-   Dolby's AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is covered by patents owned by
-Dolby Laboratories, AT&T Laboratories, Fraunhofer Institute and Sony
-Corp.
-
-   The FAAC project was threatened by the AAC license consortium. Press
-report about how "an opensource project was closed down due to pressures
-from the AAC license consortium which requires a lumpsum payment of
-10,000 USD plus a per-copy payment of 1.35 USD, thus effectively banning
-free software implementations. The policies surrounding AAC also harm
-interoperability [2.2]." This was related by Heise [2.3] and FFII has
-a page about the Dolby threat [2.1] as well as additional information
-about MPEG-related patents [2.4].
-
-   The author stopped distributing the FAAC binaries, but still provides
-full source code and CVS access. To my knowledge he has not been
-threatened again. I also read on a web forum [2.5] that Cisco's lawyers
-claim that their LGPL distribution of AAC software in MPEG4IP is
-completely legal and that Dolby cannot forbid such distribution.
-
-[2.1] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/dolby/index.en.html
-[2.2] http://www.xiph.org/archives/vorbis-dev/200011/0286.html
-[2.3] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/vza-20.11.00-000/
-[2.4] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/mpeg/index.en.html
-[2.5] http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopic=310&
-
-
-The ASF file encapsulation format
-=================================
-
-   Microsoft obtained a patent on the ASF (Active Stream Format) audio
-file format on March 21, 2000:
-
-  | United States Patent 6,041,345 Levi , et al. March 21, 2000
-  |
-  | Active stream format for holding multiple media streams
-  |
-  |  Abstract An active stream format is defined and adopted for a
-  | logical structure that encapsulates multiple data streams. The data
-  | streams may be of different media. The data of the data streams
-  | is partitioned into packets that are suitable for transmission
-  | over a transport medium. The packets may include error correcting
-  | information. The packets may also include clock licenses for
-  | dictating the advancement of a clock when the data streams are
-  | rendered. The format of ASF facilitates flexibility and choice
-  | of packet size and in specifying maximum bit rate at which data
-  | may be rendered. Error concealment strategies may be employed in
-  | the packetization of data to distribute portions of samples to
-  | multiple packets. Property information may be replicated and stored
-  | in separate packets to enhance its error tolerance. The format
-  | facilitates dynamic definition of media types and the packetization
-  | of data in such dynamically defined data types within the format.
-
-   This patent is rumoured to have been enforced at least once, though
-only through what I'd call non-hostile intimidation. Avery Lee, the
-VirtualDub author, removed ASF support from his software after a phone
-call from a Microsoft employee that he relates in his 5/12/2000 news
-[3.1].
-
-   However I could not find evidence of an official threat: all I could
-find on the web seemed to be interpretations of the VirtualDub author's
-article, for instance on Advogato [3.2], CPT [3.3] or FFII [3.4]. Avery
-Lee states that the phone call was from a programmer, not from the
-legal department. There does not seem to be an official statement from
-Microsoft.
-
-[3.1] http://web.archive.org/web/20000817222620/http://www.geocities.com/virtualdub/virtualdub_news.html
-[3.2] http://www.advogato.com/article/101.html
-[3.3] http://www.cptech.org/ip/business/software/audio.html
-[3.4] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/asf/index.en.html
-

-- 
FFmpeg packaging

