-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Adam Williamson wrote: > On Thu, 2002-11-28 at 16:23, David Walser wrote: > > I just don't think this is either accurate or true, and I worry about > the quality of Mandrake's legal advice. I thnik Mandrake is being way, > way too timid in this case. It's a nice popular myth that big companies > can force small ones into ruinous trials at the drop of a hat, and it's > certainly true in some contexts, but I don't think it's true in this > context at all. Whether the difference is immediately obvious or not is > simply not an issue, because it can easily be explained. The legal > system is sophisticated enough to draw a distinction between supplying > the source code for a patent-infringing application (not illegal) and > supplying a compiled binary of that source code (illegal), it's > certainly sophisticated enough to draw a distinction between a package > which includes some material and one which doesn't. I can't see any > competent lawyer seeing a snowball's chance in hell of a positive > outcome in an action against such a script, because such a script has > absolutely rock-solid foundations. I really can't see such a case being > pursued under the circumstances, because Microsoft would have absolutely > nothing to gain.
I am sure many people on this list consider Mandrake to be one of the few viable competitors to Microsoft. Remember that Mandrake is probably approaching the same market share Apple has. I think MS would take Apple on if they had to. For whatever wierd reason, lawyers are expensive. No matter what the outcome would be, I think Mandrakesoft would rather pay their developers than lawyers to represent them at such a case. We'll put the RPM in PLF, and it will have to stay there until Mandrakesoft has $40 Billion in cash (assuming MS's cashpile doesn't grow). People will have to learn about PLF, or sponsor better, freely licensed fonts. Buchan - -- |--------------Another happy Mandrake Club member--------------| Buchan Milne Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager Cellphone * Work +27 82 472 2231 * +27 21 8828820x121 Stellenbosch Automotive Engineering http://www.cae.co.za GPG Key http://ranger.dnsalias.com/bgmilne.asc 1024D/60D204A7 2919 E232 5610 A038 87B1 72D6 AC92 BA50 60D2 04A7 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQE95lr1rJK6UGDSBKcRAoIwAJwJ+T1ke7Sie+cnNx/zJvgZ6ZMeuQCffIog ZPY3SfAQQHrcW0ypbutYBao= =3BOs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
