On Montag, 8. Oktober 2012 22:53:28 CEST Martin Sandsmark wrote:

> My suggestion would be that we just take a stand and force RedHat to re-
> evaluate their stance on ffmpeg (or software that is covered by 
> software patents in general, like the kernel itself), so we 
> don't have to deal with this bullshit in the future.

To make that clear: if i'd state my actual opinion on SW patents, i'd get banned because i curse and swear *a lot*.

That said: Reality check.

- RH is a company under US law.

- They do nice, but their revenue is ~$1.1B and NI ~$150M
In other terms: they're a minor player - Apple has 100x the revenue and 166x the net income, not to mention the stock money - and have a look at the other members of that god damn fu.... "see...=)" MPEG LA

- The US patent system is basically corrupt (it's not just broken, it is entirely corrupted. Many ppl. profit the wrong way from the status quo)

- RH can not like IBM prevail a patent process by it's sheer size and the MPEG LA is not a Unix wannabe owning patent troll. They actually do have those "patents", so RH needs to even fight the system, not "just" the MPEG LA

=> They have little hope to win such battle; if they try out of a defensive position, that may easily be their end - so why exactly should they seek it?

It's shit, but it's also reality and you don't get around a wall by ignoring it.
As Martin said before - that issue is not gonna be solved on this mailing list.
It's faar out of scope.

Thomas

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