Moodbar in Amarok 2.0?

David C. Manuelda stormbyte at gmail.com
Thu Aug 21 12:32:14 UTC 2008


On Thursday 21 August 2008 14:30:30 Daniel Winter wrote:
> On Thursday 21 August 2008 13:44:46 Soren Harward wrote:>
>
> > I looked at this last week, and discovered that it's not simply a
> > matter of porting the old code to the new system.  The moodbar uses an
> > algorithm to determine when the music "changes" at a certain point,
> > and that algorithm is covered under US Patent 6,542,869.  I doubt that
> > the moodbar authors knew about the patent, but it's there, and we'd
> > have to completely rewrite the analysis algorithm to avoid
> > infringement.  So I really hate to be a killjoy, but it seems like the
> > moodbar is dead.
>
> And what relevance has that patent in the rest of the world? Europe, china
> and so on? (well I am not a lawyer so I do not know)
>
> Because something can not be done because weird law in one country it can
> not be done at all?
>
> I think whenever possible free software should not say oh it is not allowed
> in country x lets not do it at all..
>
> At least I on my own computer will do whatever I want to, no matter what
> patents someone under what law (even my own) has on that. I could as well
> get the software from some servers in a part of the world where the
> politics have realised that patents on such things kills innovations and at
> possibilites for everyone.
>
> Daniel
A bit offtopic: Software Patents should be erased from all over the world as 
they are really harmful

Not offtopic: I agree with Daniel. In other countries (Europe), we voted NO 
for software patents, and thus, it is not applicable here, so why modify 
something which works good just because a damned patent?
Anyone should never register an idea! :)




More information about the Amarok mailing list