-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 11:04:49PM -0700, Rob Walker wrote: >On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 13:41, Janus Christensen wrote: >> On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 05:32, Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote: >> >> But, yeah, I guess one shouldn't be surprised if Microsoft steals the >> idea. Maybe Ximian should patent the concept? > >I think that software patents are a very yucky thing, and are being used >in a very bad way. However, if it is good for the goose, it is good for >the gander, and a I think a good use of software patents would be to >secure the use of technology to open source software. It is a shame >that they (restriction of the flow of information via legal means, aka >software patents) must be used, but I think they are needed to keep >software available.
In the U.S., there is a patent that can be used to allow anyone to use the idea. I seem to remember that it is something like registering a prior art with the Patent Office so that no one can try to get a restrictive patent on the idea -- the USPTO version of copyleft. Using this process was suggested when Tim O'Rielly (O'Rielly Books) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) had a big discussion about software patents a year or so ago. Tony - -- Anthony E. Greene <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]%3E> OpenPGP Key: 0x6C94239D/7B3D BD7D 7D91 1B44 BA26 C484 A42A 60DD 6C94 239D AOL/Yahoo Chat: TonyG05 HomePage: <http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/> Linux. The choice of a GNU generation <http://www.linux.org/> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Anthony E. Greene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 0x6C94239D iD8DBQE8wAE7pCpg3WyUI50RAhVgAKDcu3q6iAbGveoMy4aJy6qgFhA5lQCg8gPd NPNborwA7Mm6TII2Ix5IUfA= =6S2A -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ evolution maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/evolution
