Re: [Dri-devel] S3TC

[magenta <ma...@tr...>]

On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 11:32:02AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Ian Romanick wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 10:59:24AM -0800, Andy Ross wrote:
> > > And there is no one involved with DRI with assets to
> > > pay such an award anyway.
> > 
> > Except all the distros.
> 
> I think that even wilful patent infringement only means "triple damages"  
> (plus lawyers fees, but that doesn't "help" the company that sues).
> 
> And since DRI support for S3TC is likely to _help_ (or at least not
> hinder) hardware companies to sell more hardware, I don't see what the
> damages would be all about.

I think that VIA could make the claim that by offloading S3TC functionality
into software, it would damage their revenue because then hardware
manufacturers would no longer have to license S3TC themselves if the driver
just converts it to native textures if it's not available in silicon.

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