Campaigns to avoid certain patented ideas
What this entry documents is not a solution.
This practice may be ineffective or useless in the long term.
ESP's position is that abolition of software patents is the only solution.
This page will list examples of campaigns to avoid software packages, file formats and other things that can bring unnecessary patent problems.
Mono
- http://mono-nono.com. Archived from the original on November 10, 2011. (See also: Mono)
- http://boycottnovell.com/?stories (See also: Novell-Microsoft patent deals)
GIF
The GIF patent expired in 2004, so the patent problems with it are gone.
- http://www.ifso.ie/documents/rms-2004-05-24.html#lzw Richard Stallman describes the difficulty of replacing GIF with technically superior, patent-free PNG format
- http://burnallgifs.org/archives/ - the old "Burn all GIFs!" campaign
Ogg Theora and WebM (encouraging their use)
In the field of audio-video software, the situation is so bad that rather than avoiding some danger areas, the whole field is in danger so we have to encourage the use of a small number of project specifically targeting freedom from patents.
The project with the best chance of success is WebM, based on the VP8 video format. Another project we support is Ogg Theora. There is one other option: H.261. H.261 was developed in 1988, so it is guaranteed to be patent free. However, due to the low quality of this old format, its use has almost no support. (See: Use software from 20 years ago)
- Open letter to Google: End the web's dependence on patent-encumber, February 2010, FSF
- Let’s Get Video on Wikipedia! - campaign launched by Open Video Alliance
