[arch-dev-public] Adding {lib32-}libtxc_dxtn_s2tc in community/multilib

[Gaetan Bisson]

[2012-12-17 09:38:15 +0100] Sven-Hendrik Haase:
> Personally, I don't think we care about patents enough

Unfortunately, many of our distribution's users, mirrors, and servers
are located in jurisdictions that take software patents seriously. I do
not think it is wise to put us at risk there, especially when these
risks can be avoided easily like seems to be the case with S3TC.

> I think plenty of stuff we have in binary in our
> repos is encumbered by patents

Like what?

You appear to be confusing patent issues with licensing issues, the
latter being what commonly concerns binary blobs (and in particular,
being granted the right to redistribute them). Besides, if such a blob
had a patent problem, I do not believe we would be at fault as we have
no means of knowing how the blob operates (at least in jurisdictions
such as the US which celebrate ignorance). Now, I am not a lawyer...

-- 
Gaetan