Patents != patents ?

[Rahul Sundaram]

Axel Thimm wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 10:37:55AM +0200, Linus Walleij wrote:
>> On Fri, 29 Sep 2006, Axel Thimm wrote:
>>
>>> I would ask the patent holders if they can explicitely allow Fedora
>>> redistribution of vtk if it is deemed a viable modus by fedora
>>> (legal?).
>> Which license is vtk under? If it is BSD-like I understand the issue, but 
>> if it's (L)GPL the license text says it implies that the authors give a 
>> royalty-free license of their own patents for anyone using the code under 
>> the (L)GPL, and this is actually quite common I think, and then there is 
>> no issue, we (all (L)GPL software) already have a license for the patents.
> 
> Unfortunately it's BSD like. I wasn't aware of this kind of difference
> between the licenses, thanks for clarifying.
> 
> Still the issue remains: The authors have hold of the patents and
> fedora extras would need special permission. Would fedora
> extras/legal/"" go along?

Dont think that would be acceptable. What if we move the package from 
extras to core? What about all the Fedora derivatives? Special 
persiflages to only Fedora wouldnt solve this.

Rahul