On Tuesday 26 August 2003 01:43 pm, Frankie wrote:
>
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Brant Fitzsimmons
> >Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2003 2:18 AM
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: Re: [newbie] mandrake & patents
> >
> >
> >Marc wrote:
> >
> >>On Tuesday 26 August 2003 10:26 am, Anarky wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> I got these links from a friend today:
> >>>
> >>>Online Demonstration Against Software Patents:
> >>>http://swpat.ffii.org/group/demo/index.en.html
> >>>Software Patents: who pays and who plays?
> >>>http://jonagold.elis.ugent.be:8080/~jonas/why.html
> >>>
> >>>http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/eintrag?f=eubsa&l=en
> >>>http://www.noepatents.org/index.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> I don't understand much of the legal stuff .. but from the stuff I
> >>>read there everything & everybody might get in trouble ... I mean would
> >>>that mean that say MS could say that Mandrake can't have a 'Control
> >>>Center' because it's based on their 'Control Panel' idea ... or point &
> >>>click solutions? I'm scared! I want to get into game making ... and if
> >>>things are this scary than only big companies with big legal
> >support can
> >>>make it.
> >>>
> >>> greets,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> I dont understand much of the legel crap myself but it seems
> >to me that
> >>Lindows went through this crap with MS about a year ago and lindows won.
> >> Aside from that I would tend to think that if it came down to
> >that Mandrake
> >>would just rename control center to system adjustment utility or
> >something
> >>like that. I must however aggree that the whole thing could be a
> >senseless
> >>PITA consumeing time energy and money over something pureley
> >ignorant while
> >>the lawyers get rich.
> >> Some of this stuff could be a last ditch scramble to turn the
> >tide of change
> >>on the part of companys like MS.
> >> It may be a sighn that MS is more than a little worried!!
> >> This may relate. About 2-3 years ago while looking for a
> >linux compatible
> >>modem I went to the modem section of ebay and did a search under
> >titles and
> >>discriptions under Linux and and only came up with 3 or 4 search
> >results I
> >>did the same thing a few days ago and came up with 167 search results.
> >> Could this be a sort of crude indicater that 42-55 times more
> >people are
> >>eather useing linux or at least aware of linux than 3 tears ago?
> >> That would be enough to make me worry a hell of a lot if I had
> >a financhal
> >>intrest in MS.
> >> Ms and SCO may be pulling this sort of patent and copywrite
> >crap because
> >>they know that their days are numbered. They may tryany any
> >means at their
> >>disposal to stop the growth of LINUX and if this is the best
> >that they can do
> >>we dont have a lot to worry about, LOL.
> >>
> >> Marc
> >> KM5KW
> >>
> >
> >Renaming the "Control Center" anything else would still be in violation
> >of a patent on the concept of a control center (a central location to
> >control configuration of the OS). If the concept is patented --
> >renaming something that does the same thing won't save you.
> >
> >It's the dumbest fscking thing I've heard in a while, and I've been on
> >the OT list. ;-)
>
>
> FRANKI:
>
> LOL, good one.. totally in agreeance..
>
> but microsoft can't prove they had the central config idea first, cos they
> didn't..
>
> my old commodore and a UI called Geoworks, and it had a central
> configuration app.. and I don't believe for a minute they were the first
> one. (oddly enough, I had a massive sense of dea ja vous (scuse spelling)
> when I first saw windows it looked very similiar to geoworks and similar to
> DRDOS's GUI also.
>
>
> rgds
>
> Franki
> htmlfixit.com
>
>
Not only that but where would it end? Everything has a control center of
some sort. The breaker box in a home or workplace. Dashboard on your car, How
about the remote for your TV or VCR? Some of this stuff seems just a bit to
generic to patent. To be able to patent something like that in a computer
would have legal implications that are staggering not only to the computer
and software industry but everywhere. But on the other hand it would not be
the first time that MS tried to do something that seemed insane to any normal
person.
Marc
KM5KW
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
