[Mesa-dev] Naked DXTn support via ARB_texture_compression?

[Petr Sebor]

On 20.3.2011 20:23, Mathias Gottschlag wrote:
>
> Argh, meant to reply to list.
>
> If this nvidia library has a s3tc patent license, cannot this be used 
> as a starting point, as done with the current dxt library? Unmodified, 
> as an external binary? Wouldn't that circumvent the whole issue as you 
> do not need a license for the hardware as it already has to be 
> licensed if it was sold somewhere (well, at least on nvidia hardware, 
> that is how I understand that FAQ entry, the part about narrow 
> licenses does not seem to apply here), and you now suddenly have a 
> licensed software encoder as well?
>
> Mathias

I think this is a good point. And since nvidia texture tools is MIT 
licensed, it could be very well packaged and become standard part
of the distributions (At least Debian's DFSG rules are MIT compatible, 
haven't checked other distros).

I'd say - great idea, but then, we'll have to believe we actually can 
use such data on the hardware that sure has to be licensed as well.
I believe it is clear. The compression and decompression algorithms are 
both implemented in packages that got to be covered by
a license.

Petr