On 7/10/06, Attila Kinali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:43:26 -0400
"Timothy Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Please, don't open Pandoras box! I haven't seen sofar one
> > case where patents have worked together with OSS/OH other then
> > giving away all rights to everyone. Anything else just asks
> > for trouble.
>
> Some of the more pushy "open everything" people have told me that
> patents would be a valid way to keep from getting ripped off, going to
> the extent of not licensing them to be free for use under GPL. What
> to do?
Yes, you can do that. It's possible. But you have to be
very very carefull. I don't see myself to be able to craft
a license term that would allow FOSS use but deny comercial
use. Beside, that would to some degree invalidate the
GPL.
The biggest thread for us is that a company comes, takes
the RTL and produces chips before we can and/or sells them
cheaper. As long as they comply with the GPL we cannot do
anything about it.
Now if you have a patent that dissalows usage of the RTL
in comercial enviroments w/o paying fees, then you take
a big amount of freedom out of the code. Yes, IMHO comercialization
of an FOSS belongs also to the freedom one should be able
to execise.
IMHO you should rather work with the copyright license
or with trade secrets (dont give the RTL away until you
think you made enoug money).
Though, currently i really doubt that there will be a company
who would take the rist of building and selling OGA.
Currently, the only ones who would buy it are OSS people.
And those have a very good sense of loyality.
Of course, if they enter the embedded market, then this
will become a problem. But there you can prove that you
have a strategy that leads to the future, while the others
are just rip offs.
Ie, right marketing would solve it in a better way
than patents possibly can.
Attila Kinali
--
心をこめて聞け心をこめて話せ
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Timothy Miller & OHF,
Lets take a step back for a moment and re-state what needs to happen and/or not happen ok?
--- 1: Transversal and the OHF *Must make money in some fashion. If they can not make money then this whole OHF thing will die. No money = death. If that happen the Open source community suffers as a whole.
--- 1a: The whole point of Open HardWare is not that it will be free to any good home willing to ask for "free lunch". It is so that the Hardware will be designed, manufactured, and nutured (drivers, userspace apps, ect) in a manner that allows *The General Community* to Purchase (yes pay money for) hardware and/or software that absolutely will behave in a fashion that is considered well behaved and civil. I.E. what you Think you are buying really is what you are getting for your money.
--- 2: Transversal will be the "evil money grubbing suit and tie" who works their butts off to make this whole Open HardWare deal possible. They *Must* have a means of self protection from not only real corperate sharks who would gladly "kill" Transversal, they must also protect themselves from the "free lunch" folks who simply demand the freedom of a nice handout. Thank you very much.
--- 2a: OHF will be the concious that keeps the "evil money grubbing suit and tie" Honest! They will in reality be the I.P. Managers for the hardware arm that is Transversal. It would be OHF who tries to deal with Public Image/P.R., nurture the software devel, and help round up oportunities for Transversal And OHF. Since OHF is the GoodGuys tm :) OHF also manages donations obviously.
In summary what it amounts to is if you can not make money, or if you have a problem with making money then this venture can not possibly succeed. It is in fact that simple. Either you make sure you can make money, or you die. Now I am not discounting Donations from "friendlys", there simply is no real way for this to work on donations and goodwill alone. Either you draft a ways and means of protecting yourselves or you die.
I for one really want to see this venture take off.
Happy computing good sirs,
Gary
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