🚀 go-pugleaf

>> Maybe it's time for GNUPhoto?
>> Give away the object, sell the UI or the filter to TIFF...

Giving away something violates the patent as surely as selling it
does.  Which makes sense, since a rich competitor might try to bury
a small company by giving away what the small company lives off of.

There is a way out though--you can claim that you are using the
invention (I forget the exact wording) for your own edification or
research, so the author of GNUphoto could put in a stipulation that
this cannot be used for normal work, only to learn about and experiment
with the "invention" itself (i.e. whatever Kodak has patented).

This may or may not work, depending on how GNUphoto actually gets
used.  I suspect that despite the stipulation, people with no interest
in Kodak's patents would use it to look at their photo-CD's.

In that case, Kodak could go to court to block the distribution of
this hypothetical GNUphoto.  If their patents stand up, they would be
right, since it would be cutting into the sales of photo-CD readers
using Kodak-licensed technology.

Mark Adler
madler@cco.caltech.edu