mesa-lib and that patented patchy thingy

[Zbigniew Luszpinski]

> It's really really really a no-go to force me as a user to do research
> whether this specific feature is allowed in my country or not - plus i
> haven't found any information about in which countries it allowed and
> in which it's not, most docs which refer to this state "it might be ..
> in..." - Plus: i'm not a lawyer, why do i have to deal with patents and
> such stuff? I just want my X11 working..

I'm not a lawyer too but if I buy GPU a license fee for s3tc is already 
paid as part of price of GPU I think.

"While S3 Graphics is no longer a competitor in the graphics accelerator 
market, license fees are still levied and collected for the use of S3TC 
technology, for example in game consoles and graphics cards."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression

So s3tc question could be asked only when someone is going to use mesa in 
full software only or on old 2D only GPU.

Windows drivers setups do not ask the question if you live in a country 
where s3tc is not/is patended. So the question is if you paid the license 
buying GPU or M$ Windows.

"When chatting with Ian, he mentions that in the past month or two that 
the S3TC patent was marked as invalid. This was evidently marked invalid 
in the HTC, which recently acquired S3 Graphics, and Apple patent battle. 
However, I haven't heard of this previously nor has Google.
Ian mentions that the Intel IP/legal counsel will be looking into the S3TC 
patent situation. If it is indeed invalid, S3 Texture Compression will be 
enabled by default in Mesa."
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTkxMQ