Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of SVG4R

[Loic Dachary]

Holden Glova writes:
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 > 
 > On Mon, 10 Dec 2001 04:13, Loic Dachary wrote:
 > > Hi,
 > >
 > >    Because of pending patents
 > >    (http://www.w3.org/2001/07/SVG10-IPR-statements.html) it is
 > >    not possible to write Free Software that implements SVG.  To
 > >    my knowledge it's the first example of a proposed standard
 > >    whose usability is encumbered by a patent.
 > >
 > >    This is very unfortunate and you probably know much more than I
 > >    do on this subject.
 > >
 > >    If you know of a way to change this situation, please submit your
 > >    project again explaining how it could be done.
 > >
 > >    Thanks,
 > >
 > > address@hidden writes:
 > >  > A package was submitted to savannah.gnu.org.
 > >  > This mail was sent to address@hidden,
 > >  > address@hidden
 > >  >
 > >  >
 > >  > Holden Glova <address@hidden> described the package as
 > >  > follows: License: lgpl
 > >  > Other License:
 > >  > Package: SVG4R
 > >  > System name: dsafari
 > >  > This package does NOT want to apply for inclusion in the GNU
 > >  > project
 > >  >
 > >  > My project is to provide an API to SVG through the Ruby
 > >  > programming language. The aim is to create a library that takes
 > >  > care of creating and using SVG but through Ruby. Initially I
 > >  > would like to identify and create Ruby objects from the SVG spec
 > >  > (http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/). This is my initial goal. Following
 > >  > that I would like to figure out how to incorporate Ruby bindings
 > >  > for the possible events that can be used within the SVG model.
 > >  >
 > >  >
 > >  > It does not exist yet but I\'m working on it.
 > 
 > This is interesting. Any idea how these guys get away with it then? 
 > They say their software is free.
 > 
 > http://broadway.cs.nott.ac.uk/projects/SVG/svgpl/    SVG-PL
 > 
 > I've looked over what they are doing and it is pretty much what I am 
 > trying to do, except through Ruby. I would like to programmatically 
 > create SVG documents through Ruby objects.
 > 
 > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

        Note that the license

        http://broadway.cs.nott.ac.uk/projects/SVG/svgpl/licence.html

        is not Free Software (restricted for commercial use among
other problems). In addition, because of the pending patent, a company
using it for trial purposes or "internally" (as said in the license)
may be in trouble.

        It is worth doing the following, if you have some energy to devote
to it.

        - Contact them and kindly ask them how they handle the patent problem

        - Ask them to contact W3C to find a solution. The best
          solution would be to convince the patent holder to change
          the claims of the patent so that it's usable by anyone
          without any restriction. An intermediate solution would be
          to convince them to allow every Free Software an
          unrestricted grant to use the patent. Since the definition
          of Free Software is rather broad it is likely that they
          would not accept that. However they may be convinced to, at
          least, allow that GNU GPL'ed software can use the
          patent. This was the only solution found with FSMlabs on
          RT/Linux. Of course this is quite unsatisfactory in general
          because the patent remains a burden for a wide range of Free
          Software licenses. However it is likely that no other
          compromise can be found and it would at least improve the
          situation. Since GNU GPL'ed software cannot be used in
          conjunction with proprietary software, the patent holder
          will indeed grant an unrestricted right to use the patent to
          Free Software only and will be able to enforce it on
          proprietary software.

        - Suggest them to change their license to GNU GPL when done
          or an existing Free Software license

        I wish you the best luck on this subject. It is important for
everyone that software patent holders are contacted to make them
understand it is a real problem for everyone.

        If you ever do something please inform address@hidden and
address@hidden There already are people trying to change the situation
related to W3C proposed standards and patents. I've not followed the 
subject and could not give you more information. By announcing what you
do on those lists there is a good chance you'll meet these people.

        Cheers,

-- 
Loic   Dachary         http://www.dachary.org/  address@hidden
24 av Secretan         http://www.senga.org/      address@hidden
75019    Paris         T: 33 1 42 45 09 16          address@hidden
        GPG Public Key: http://www.dachary.org/loic/gpg.txt