kadamski wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong but the licence is acually needed only because of patents issues. If so, then it only applies to the countries where software can be patented. So, for example it should not be a legal problem to sell RPi in EU (and many other countries) with MPEG2 decoding, without paying 2$ fee. Is this, at least in theory, true?
let me give an example of why it may not be that simple... I live in the US, where software can, to a degree at least, get patent protection (or, at least, companies keep trying for it and get into VERY expensive court fights). I ordered (and received) a Pi from RS. It was shipped from the UK. Does that count as an EU sale? Or a US sale?
In addition, given the ability people have to download software from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world (once again, look at the DECSS case), it may be *legal* for someone to write software AND be illegal for someone else to download it and use...all because of different laws in different countries.
If i were to download legally written software that has IP protection in the US, unless I shout it from the rooftops, the odds are quite good I'd never be caught...but I'm an individual and neither a school nor a corporation, so the risk factors are different for me than they are for those sorts of entities.
Possibly the best option is to wait for the MPEG2 patents to run out (that was an interesting plot that was posted), but by the time the last one does, no one may *care* about MPEG2 any more.