[Foundation-l] Re: File format policy

Wed Feb 15 06:17:45 UTC 2006

Gregory Maxwell wrote:

>I don't agree. If I take some content, place it in a safe, and make it
>illegal for people to open the safe unless they agree to pay me money
>and abide by certain other conditions, and then distribute it
>widely... Well..  I can *claim* all I want that the 'content' is free,
>but that would a meaningless claim.
>
That's not even remotely close to the case here, though.  We're not 
talking about having content *only* in patent-encumbered formats, but in 
offering a user the option to receive it in a patent-encumbered formats 
while also having it available in a non-encumbered format as the 
preferred format.

That is more analogous to taking some content, putting one copy of it up 
freely on the internet, and the other copy in a safe.  The fact that you 
have a copy in a safe does not make the copy on the internet less free.

-Mark