Tom Lane wrote: > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes: > > Andrew Sullivan wrote: > >> What will you do if the patent is granted, 8.0 is out there with the > >> offending code, and you get a cease-and-desist letter from IBM > >> demanding the removal of all offending code from the Net? > > > We can modify the code slightly to hopefully avoid the patent. With the > > US granting patents on even obvious ideas, I would think that most large > > software projects, including commercial ones, already have tons of > > patent violations in their code. Does anyone think otherwise? > > I think there is zero probability of being sued by IBM in the near > future. They would instantly destroy the credibility and good > relationships they've worked so hard to build up with the entire > open source community. > > However, I don't want to be beholden to IBM indefinitely --- in five > years their corporate strategy might change. I think that a reasonable > response to this is to plan to get rid of ARC, or at least modify the > code enough to avoid the patent, in time for 8.1. (It's entirely likely > that that will happen before the patent issues, anyway.)
We may already have modified the code enough to avoid the patent. -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html
