Re: Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] APCO 25

[Dave Emery]

On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 09:37:15PM -0800, Mark Smith wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 09:18:05PM -0800, Seth David Schoen wrote:
> > > If at all possible, the better answer is to get the patent holders to 
> > > allow non-comercial use free of charge.  Then, there would be no problems
> > > for someone like me to use the code, or better yet, help write the code.
> > 
> > You should keep in mind that there is some difficulty in reconciling
> > that arrangement with, say, the GPL (see its section 7).
> > 
> > I still have some uncertainty about how to apply section 7 of the GPL
> > to particular situations, and I'll probably ask the FSF to clarify
> > their interpretation a little bit next week.
> 
> Ooo..  I hadn't thought at all about the GPL..  Yeah, that's going to 
> make things "Interesting," in the Chinese Curse sorta way..
> 

        I should think that some way could be found to release and
license for strictly non-commercial use a IMBE library that would avoid
GPL issues while still allowing those who wanted to run APCO-25 with
gnu-radio to do so.    Perhaps one would have to have the vocoder as a
separate module or library covered by its own more restrictive license,
but it wasn't my impression that GPL required that any code used with it
be also covered if it was not itself GPL'd.

        As for whether this would pass muster with FSF, I am not sure.  
But unless one is a dyed in the wool FSF radical, a compromise that
requires separate sources for a separate and separately licensed
IMBE library but provides the functionality to non-commercial users on
some basis that we can live with seems better than demanding that no
patented or licensed algorithms can be used with gnu code.





-- 
        Dave Emery N1PRE,  address@hidden  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. 
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