Re: GraphicsMagick & LZW compression

Bob Friesenhahn <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.video.graphicsmagick.core
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, Glenn Randers-Pehrson wrote:
>
> What are "reasonable steps"?
>
> I think anything short of forcing the user to take some explicit step
> such as typing "--enable-lzw-compression" isn't enough.  Putting a
> cautionary note in the README isn't enough because we know that only
> a small fraction of users read READMEs.  A checkbox where they certify
> that they aren't in a protected country might be enough.

Lets say that company X makes shavers in the US and that French
company Y has a French patent on part of the shaver design, but
doesn't hold this patent in the US.  Company X sells the shavers in
the US.  An enterprising individual decides that he can make money by
selling shavers from company X in France, independently purchases
several boxes of shavers, and imports them into France for sale. Has
company X infringed on company Y's patent if company X didn't print a
warning on the carton that the design of the shaver is patented by
company Y in France?  I don't think so, because company X didn't
intentionally export its shavers to France.

Since the burden is obviously on the importer (or exporter), I think
that reasonable steps would be a note in the associated README on the
ftp site, something key in the file name (e.g. "lzw") so the files can
be identified, and a warning note in the installer licenses message.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
[email protected]
http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen



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