Re: Can I expect in-kernel decoding to work out of box?

[Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@redhat.com>]

Em 28-07-2010 14:38, Jon Smirl escreveu:
> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Andy Walls <awalls@md.metrocast.net> wrote:
>> On Wed, 2010-07-28 at 13:04 -0400, Jon Smirl wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 11:56 AM, Mauro Carvalho Chehab
>>> <mchehab@redhat.com> wrote:
>>>> Em 28-07-2010 11:41, Jon Smirl escreveu:
>>
>>>
>>> Are there any IR protocols less than 20 (or 17) years old? If they are
>>> older than that the patents have expired. I expect IR use to decline
>>> in the future, it will be replaced with RF4CE radio remotes.
>>
>> UEI's XMP protocol for one, IIRC.
> 
> The beauty of LIRC is that you can use any remote for input.  If one
> remote's protocols are patented, just use another remote.
> 
> Only in the case where we have to xmit the protocol is the patent
> conflict unavoidable. In that case we could resort to sending a raw
> pulse timing string that comes from user space.

Well, software patents are valid only on very few Countries. People that live
on a software-patent-free Country can keep using those protocols, if they
can just upload a set of rules for a generic driver. On the other hand,
a rule-hardcoded codec for a patented protocol cannot be inside Kernel, as
this would restrict kernel distribution on those non-software-patent-free
Countries.

Cheers,
Mauro.