Vin McLellan wrote:
> I don't doubt that there are some silly software patents.
>
> I watched the 5-7 year debate in the US in the '70s and '80s about
> what type of intellectual property protection was appropriate for software,
> however. Young people on this List often presume that they are the first to
> consider these issues; and few look back to sort out the debates that framed
> the issue in the past, when crucial policy decisions on software IP were made.
[ very informative and well-written message snipped ]
I don't necessarily have a problem with software patents in general. I
do have a problem
with RSA's extremely restrictive licensing terms... perhaps not
extremely restrictive to
larger companies that have big bank accounts, but definitely prohibitive
for smaller companies.
Around a year ago, I got in contact with a sales representative from
RSA. My goal was to
determine what was required to legally use their encryption libraries. I
was told that their license fees *start* at $50K.
If you are selling a product that uses RSA's software, and you are going
to sell in any significant volume (a couple thousand copies or more),
then $50,000 isn't necessarily a big expense, since you can get that
money back from the people buying the software. But for internal or
low-volume projects, if you spend that $50K, the cost of producing the
software goes through the roof.
I didn't find out exactly what you get for that amount of money...
--
North Shore Technologies Corporation - Steven J. Sobol, President & Head
Geek
815 Superior Avenue #610, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, USA Phone +1
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