On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 7:49 PM, Kevin Kofler wrote:
Eric Smith wrote:
> IANAL, but multiple lawyers have told me that it is generally a bad idea
> to go looking for patents, at least in the US. If they're brought to your
> attention, you should probably do whatever is necessary to avoid them, but
> you shouldn't actively seek them out, even just to try to confirm that
> you're not using anything patented.
Hunting for patents is one thing (I wouldn't recommend it either), but
looking for obviously patent-encumbered stuff (like MP3 codecs) is another.
That's not quite obvious anymore. Most MP3 patents have expired by
now. Whether any of the remaining handful of patents are violated by
an MP3 codec implementation needs some non-trivial consideration.
Orcan