Patents and Open Source
Nov. 11th, 2016 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lmemsm--- Free Software and Patent Policy ---
Patents can inhibit and encumber legal distribution of Free and Open Source software.
One might think that the best way to avoid patent issues would be to stick with Free software and Free operating systems. However, these distributions typically deal mainly with software free of copyright issues not patent issues. Patents may only be issues in some parts of the world and many Free operating systems feel justified in distributing patented code (source code only) as part of their freedom of speech.
Note that Free software and operating systems in this article correspond to the Free Software Foundation's definition of ""Free"" and is not necessarily equivalent to Open Source. The Free Software Foundation provides a list of what they consider Free operating systems at https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html
Debian is a good example of a mostly Free operating system ( https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.en.html ). Unlike many completely Free operating system alternatives, its package repository is so extensive, one can find a variety of useful patent unencumbered options. They've also documented information on their polices regarding patented software. Perhaps surprisingly, the best places to find patent unencumbered and royalty-free operating systems are from commercial sources.
The following links give some information on Debian's policies toward patents and patent issues:
--- Patent Encumbered Software---
It's hard to pin down a definitive list of what software may be patent encumbered. Sometimes, even the developers of the software themselves are vague as to whether the software might infringe on patents or not. So, checking a program's web site for patent information may not always help. Typically, one will find software that uses certain compression/decompression algorithms or supports certain multimedia encoding/decoding on lists of patent encumbered software. Here are some lists of software that may have distribution issues.
--- Patent Unencumbered Multimedia Formats ---
One can help to avoid patent encumbered software by using royalty-free or patent unencumbered alternatives such as some of the following:
--- GIF format and LZW ---
A good example of patent related issues with software is the GIF format. Patents on LZW compression used by the GIF format were a main reason for creation of the PNG format. Even though the related LZW patents have expired, one still sees Free software that uses alternatives like libungif (library that encodes only uncompressed GIFs).
--- MPEG-1 issues ---
According to Wikipedia's article on smpeg ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPEG ), it sounds as if the MPEG-1 format is patent unencumbered. However, upon further reading they contradict the information in their MPEG-1 article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-1 ) and state that a full MPEG-1 encoder/decoder cannot be implemented royalty-free because the MP3 audio format which is part of that standard still has several active patents on it.
One possible solution might be to remove the MP3 support in MPEG-1 software. It would be enough to allow viewing of educational information such as the MPEG 1 videos at:
HubbleSOURCE - http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/video/clips/
--- Multimedia Patents ---
Information on when some multimedia patents expire:
--- Patent Unencumbered Software Options ---
This list covers software and builds of software that attempt to avoid patented code or code that is not royalty free.
Graphics programs that can built with patent unencumbered libraries and codecs include:
---===== FLIC Format =====---
---===== Animated PNG =====---
---===== Animated GIF =====---
---===== Ogg Theora =====---
---===== Ogg Vorbis =====---
The OpusFAQ - https://wiki.xiph.org/OpusFAQ - says that Ogg Vorbis and speex are being replaced by Opus. I haven't seen any Open Source projects specifically switch from Ogg Vorbis to Opus. However, Xiph.Org Foundation developers created Opus to replace Ogg Vorbis and recommend that projects switch to using the newer format.
---===== WebM and VPX =====---
--- Other Possibilities ---
As mentioned, one can remove the MP3 code from smpeg. There's a pruned older version of smpeg that does this. It might then be usable with other libraries and applications such as xine-lib, dumpmpeg.
Twolame - http://www.twolame.org/ - is optimized for MP2 (MPEG Audio Layer 2) and might provide an alternative to MP3.
--- What can you do? ---
The best way to encourage royalty-free and patent unencumbered software is to support Open formats that are patent unencumbered. As consumers, pick devices that can handle these Open formats. Share multimedia in patent unencumbered formats and encourage multimedia providers to offer these formats.
Here's a list of efforts to encourage patent unencumbered options.
Patents can inhibit and encumber legal distribution of Free and Open Source software.
One might think that the best way to avoid patent issues would be to stick with Free software and Free operating systems. However, these distributions typically deal mainly with software free of copyright issues not patent issues. Patents may only be issues in some parts of the world and many Free operating systems feel justified in distributing patented code (source code only) as part of their freedom of speech.
Note that Free software and operating systems in this article correspond to the Free Software Foundation's definition of ""Free"" and is not necessarily equivalent to Open Source. The Free Software Foundation provides a list of what they consider Free operating systems at https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html
Debian is a good example of a mostly Free operating system ( https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.en.html ). Unlike many completely Free operating system alternatives, its package repository is so extensive, one can find a variety of useful patent unencumbered options. They've also documented information on their polices regarding patented software. Perhaps surprisingly, the best places to find patent unencumbered and royalty-free operating systems are from commercial sources.
The following links give some information on Debian's policies toward patents and patent issues:
- Debian Position on Software Patents - https://www.debian.org/legal/patent
- Debian's Patent Policy FAQ - https://www.debian.org/reports/patent-faq
--- Patent Encumbered Software---
It's hard to pin down a definitive list of what software may be patent encumbered. Sometimes, even the developers of the software themselves are vague as to whether the software might infringe on patents or not. So, checking a program's web site for patent information may not always help. Typically, one will find software that uses certain compression/decompression algorithms or supports certain multimedia encoding/decoding on lists of patent encumbered software. Here are some lists of software that may have distribution issues.
- Audio-video patents - http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Audio-video_patents
End Software Patents list information on patented and safe audio/video formats - Restricted formats - http://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_formats
- Forbidden items - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items?rd=ForbiddenItems
- Disabled applications list - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Peter/Disabled_applications
--- Patent Unencumbered Multimedia Formats ---
One can help to avoid patent encumbered software by using royalty-free or patent unencumbered alternatives such as some of the following:
- Dirac Schroedinger from the BBC - https://sourceforge.net/projects/dirac/
- WebM backed by Google - http://www.webmproject.org/
- Xiph.org Foundation with Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, Flac, Speex and Icecast - http://www.xiph.org/downloads/
--- GIF format and LZW ---
A good example of patent related issues with software is the GIF format. Patents on LZW compression used by the GIF format were a main reason for creation of the PNG format. Even though the related LZW patents have expired, one still sees Free software that uses alternatives like libungif (library that encodes only uncompressed GIFs).
- GIF Now Finally Free - https://web.archive.org/web/20180812170746/http://freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/gif_now_finally_free/
- libungif - http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Libungif
--- MPEG-1 issues ---
According to Wikipedia's article on smpeg ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPEG ), it sounds as if the MPEG-1 format is patent unencumbered. However, upon further reading they contradict the information in their MPEG-1 article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-1 ) and state that a full MPEG-1 encoder/decoder cannot be implemented royalty-free because the MP3 audio format which is part of that standard still has several active patents on it.
One possible solution might be to remove the MP3 support in MPEG-1 software. It would be enough to allow viewing of educational information such as the MPEG 1 videos at:
HubbleSOURCE - http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/video/clips/
--- Multimedia Patents ---
Information on when some multimedia patents expire:
- Half of MPEG-2 Patents Expire in 2012 - https://web.archive.org/web/20120327220129/http://www.robglidden.com/2011/12/half-of-mpeg-2-patents-expire-in-2012/
- US Patent Expiration for MP3, MPEG-2, H.264 - http://www.osnews.com/story/24954/US_Patent_Expiration_for_MP3_MPEG-2_H_264/
- What about patents on data compression algorithms? - http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section-7.html
- List of MP3 patents and supposed expiration dates - http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/
- ac3 format's last patent expires March 20, 2017 -
https://web.archive.org/web/20170401170436/https://ac3freedomday.org/ - mp3 decoding support -
https://fedoramagazine.org/full-MP3-support-coming-soon-to-fedora/
--- Patent Unencumbered Software Options ---
This list covers software and builds of software that attempt to avoid patented code or code that is not royalty free.
- xine-lib pruned - http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/lookaside/pkgs/xine-lib/
Pruned older version of xine-lib that has patent encumbered code stripped from it. Some lightweight xine front ends that can be used with it include xine-ui, flxine, toxine or vplayer. (Note: When I contacted the Fedora Project offering to help update this to a later version, they were very much against updating the pruned library and very impolite about the situation. I do have a later version of this library with patented code stripped.) - sox - https://sourceforge.net/projects/sox/ - Sound eXchange, the Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs, can be built with only royalty free and patent unencumbered libraries and codecs.
Graphics programs that can built with patent unencumbered libraries and codecs include:
- Graphicsmagick - http://www.graphicsmagick.org/
- Imagemagick - http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
- netpbm - http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/ - This may requiring pruning of some video related programs
---===== FLIC Format =====---
- FLI/FLC Animation Format - https://web.archive.org/web/20180127181817/https://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/modeling/flc.html
Information on the video animation format originally developed by Autodesk. Also has suggestions for players and utilities (some are Open Source but others are freeware). - flxplay - http://www.libsdl.org/projects/flxplay/
Lightweight FLX/FLC animation player. - FLIC - http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/FLIC
More information on FLI, FLC, FLX and related formats.
---===== Animated PNG =====---
- APNG patch for libpng - http://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng-apng/
- APNG Assembler - http://apngasm.sourceforge.net/
There are also links to other related utilities such as APNG Disassembler, GIF to APNG, APNG to GIF and APNG Optimizer
---===== Animated GIF =====---
- Gifsicle - http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/
Animated GIF creator.
---===== Ogg Theora =====---
- TheoraPlay https://icculus.org/theoraplay/
Lighweight Ogg Theora audio/video viewer.
---===== Ogg Vorbis =====---
- OGG123 - http://xiph.org/downloads/
Part of libogg. Can play Ogg Vorbis audio files.
The OpusFAQ - https://wiki.xiph.org/OpusFAQ - says that Ogg Vorbis and speex are being replaced by Opus. I haven't seen any Open Source projects specifically switch from Ogg Vorbis to Opus. However, Xiph.Org Foundation developers created Opus to replace Ogg Vorbis and recommend that projects switch to using the newer format.
---===== WebM and VPX =====---
- webm-player - https://github.com/doublec/webm-player - no audio support at this time
- playvpx - http://www.philhassey.com/blog/2012/02/02/how-to-create-and-play-ivf-vp8-webm-libvpx-video-in-opengl/
--- Other Possibilities ---
As mentioned, one can remove the MP3 code from smpeg. There's a pruned older version of smpeg that does this. It might then be usable with other libraries and applications such as xine-lib, dumpmpeg.
Twolame - http://www.twolame.org/ - is optimized for MP2 (MPEG Audio Layer 2) and might provide an alternative to MP3.
--- What can you do? ---
The best way to encourage royalty-free and patent unencumbered software is to support Open formats that are patent unencumbered. As consumers, pick devices that can handle these Open formats. Share multimedia in patent unencumbered formats and encourage multimedia providers to offer these formats.
Here's a list of efforts to encourage patent unencumbered options.
- PlayOgg! initiative - http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/en
- Campaigns to avoid patented ideas - http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Campaigns_to_avoid_patented_ideas - End Software Patents list of campaigns and how to organize one.
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