The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 22:28 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263)
In reply to: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit by davide.del.vento
Parent article: The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

There is absolutely no doubt that more than a few patents stick to the kernel, and probably also Ogg Vorbis. Hell, patents will probably stick to any piece of software more advanced than an eggtimer.

The MP3 patents are expiring in a year, and no one has come after the most successful encoder of all time: Lame.

- And if anyone gets their ass sued off it will be Canonical, how is that a problem for you?

- Oh... Why aren't you complaining about the mp3 player being installed by default while you're at it? In regards to patents, it is more a problem than actually giving you access to mp3 files.

In regards to Mono: Though IANAL, a promise is more or less legally binding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel#American_law

While there is issues with the coverage of the Community Promise for parts of .Net, core Mono is covered (no, I have no idea if Ubuntu ships the uncovered database or Forms parts by default).

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 22:34 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (15 responses)

Patent holders don't usually go after implementations of decoders but those
distributing them especially if they can sue for damages and they certainly
have done that repeatedly in the case of MP3 and the all the patents don't
expire in an year either and yes encouraging the use of mp3 encourages the
use of a mp3 decoder to be installed by default which is indeed a cause
for concern

Btw it is not merely a concern for Canonical but for every end user since
patent holders can sue for usage of patented technology

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 22:48 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (14 responses)

Encoding will not expire until later. That is not the end users problem.

The mp3 are not covered by patents, while the decoder might be.

- Anyway, end users will not get sued for playing mp3s (not for patents anyway, the contents are at your own risk). Claiming otherwise is just BS.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 22:59 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (13 responses)

End users might very well want to encode their content as MP3 as well so
let's not assume that only decoding is the end user problem and you might
want to refer to the actual dates for decoding related patents as well

Yes I am very well aware that MP3 itself is not patented but since you
need a decoder to do anything useful with it you are exposed to the
additional liability

You might call it BS but if you are using a patent encumbered technology
without any license you might very well be liable as a user of the
technology and your claim that only distributors are liable is wrong

One example

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2010/01/h264_...

"In other words, if you're an end user in a country where software
patents (or method patents) are enforceable, and you're using software
that encodes or decodes H.264 and the vendor is not on the list of
licensees, the MPEG-LA reserves the right to sue you, the end user, as
well as the software vendor or distributor."

The same applies but to all patents and while it is unlikely that a
patent holder will come after end users it is definitely possible and
very much legal for them to do so

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:16 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (12 responses)

I don't claim that only distributers are liable, I claim that no end user will be sued.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:20 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (10 responses)

If I get sued by a patent holder I cannot go to court and possibly say
"My Lord Los_D in LWN claimed I won't be sued if I infringe on this
patent and that's why I did it"

End users remain liable regardless of whatever you claim unless you get it
in writing from the patent holder

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:50 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (9 responses)

And there is a chance that an airplane might crash on my house while I'm in bed.

That doesn't make me sleep in the bomb shelter.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:56 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (8 responses)

Sure you might wave off the liability as meager and I would agree but you
have no right to assert that no end user will be sued and more importantly
end users do need to consider the impact of patents and promotion of patent
encumbered codecs regardless of whether they will be sued or not

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:34 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (7 responses)

It is of course up to the single user to assert the risks, and make up their mind about what they would like to use.

The problem I had with this, was the pretending that this will is a real danger for end users.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:16 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (6 responses)

The real danger is the assumption that we don't need to care about patents
as end users because we wont get sued and that is very short sighted view
of how patents affect end users as well

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:55 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (5 responses)

I agree to a point, but that is no excuse for FUDing about users getting sued.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:59 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (4 responses)

I am pointing out the legal reality and if accepting that reality offends
you so much I can't do anything about that and the simple fact is that the
users CAN get sued even if it is improbable and it is all depends on the
cost of the lawsuit vs the expectation of revenue

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:36 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

see the RIAA lawsuits as examples.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:51 UTC (Wed) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link] (1 responses)

I am pointing out the legal reality

Do you have any specific pointers to cases where end users were sued?

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 19, 2010 2:35 UTC (Fri) by AndreE (guest, #60148) [Link]

being sued isn't the legal reality. The legal reality is what law dictates.

You may not get picked up or even ticketed for speeding, but the legal reality is that speeding is an offence.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 13:12 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Users can get sued *anyway*, over any sort of invented rubbish a big
corporation wishes. Since the end result whether there's a law in place or
not is the same (the user runs out of money almost at once), I'm not sure
that end users are really affected (they go from screwed to screwed).

In the UK things might be different because we have legal aid, so there
isn't *quite* such a feeling that the law doesn't matter, all that matters
is which party can keep going the longest.

The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

Posted Mar 3, 2010 20:24 UTC (Wed) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

The concept of "end user" is incompatible with free software. An "end user" is someone who will not be involved with distributing, selling, modifying, etc. the software further, but the whole point of free software is to allow and encourage users to do that.

So if only "end users" are safe, then the software cannot be free.