Re:Apache Foundation disallows use of the Facebook “BSD+Pate...
by mixedbit on Sunday July 16, 2017 @01:21PM
(#14783032)
As far as I know GIF and MP3 decoders were made open source not by the patent holders, if the patent holders open sourced the decoders, would they be able to enforce the patent rights?
Re:Apache Foundation disallows use of the Facebook “BSD+Pate...
by HelloNurse on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @06:28AM
(#14795492)
The license of an open source implementation is granted by the authors and allows you to make copies and derivative works, while a patent grant comes from the patent holder and allows you to actually use the software. They are two completely independent things.
I was involved with an opensource project which got a patent application submitted by the company. Even though I pointed out prior art. And even though I refused to sign the application as one of the authors. That's corporate environment for you.