[MPlayer-dev-eng] Re: KiSS of copyright

[ChristianHJW]

Tuukka Toivonen wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, D Richard Felker III wrote:
>  
>>It's very simple. KiSS has committed a crime which makes them liable
>>for millions of dollars (at least under US law, dunno about other
>>countries). We can press charges/file civil suit, with then intention
> 
> In Finland/Denmark (wasn't KiSS from Denmark?) the sum would be quite
> definitely smaller. They would need to pay for damages and possibly some
> punishment amount. It's hard to show that infringing GPL actually caused
> some monetary damages, and I don't think that there would be high
> amount of money for punishing KiSS either. And of course one would need to
> first show in court that they really stole code, it might be obvious for
> us but maybe not for judge.

Thats the main question to be answered, and its the most important thing 
driving this argument :

1. Can KiSS only be held responsible for financial damages to the 
mplayer project ( = 0 US$ !!! )

2. Can KiSS be charged for earning money with stolen code, and how big 
is the advantage they gathered by doing that ( = ?? US$ )

I am not a lawyer, and not at all involved in mplayer, so dont expect me 
to answer this question, but from reading through all the emails its 
quite obvious to me that this is the key question.

In other words :

If 1. applies, just take the 2500 bucks and be happy. If 2. applies, how 
can the advantage for KiSS by adding the stolen code to their player 
firmware ( illegally, thats clear ) be quantified, and who will fight 
this through a european court, and backed up with who's money ? note 
that US jurisdiction with crazy sums being charged is simply obsolete 
here, KiSS is not a US american company, and they dont sell to the US, 
so just forget that.

After some consideration from my side, with no sympathies for KiSS ( 
they played a rather unfunny game with us, without stressing any details 
), i recommend to take the 2500 bucks and buy new hardware from that for 
the project, or whatever ....

Christian
matroska project admin
http://www.matroska.org