Yup. Patent breach is eerily close to thoughtcrime, especially when mixed with the notion of software patents, where all you really need to do is derive a number. That's it.
On Aug 16, 9:39 am, B Smith-Mannschott <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:27, Steven Herod <[email protected]> wrote: > > Out of curiosity, in all of this, we're absolutely certain no former > > Sun engineers, fresh from patenting a concept at Sun (or working on > > said patented code) moved to Google and reimplemented the same thing > > the same way? > > This is irrelevant. That's the beauty of patents. Google could have > imported engineers from Mars with no prior knowledge of any VM > implementation techniques. If they independently came to the solutions > covered by Oracle's patents, they'd still have to pay. > > So, boys and girls, before you write your next line of code, make sure > to consult all potentially relevant patent registries. Ignorance is > no defense. The fact that patents are written in impenetrable legalese > is no defense. The fact that it's often unclear if a patent even > applies until it's been tested in court is no defense. The fact that > testing said patent in court costs more than most mortals can afford > is also no defense. Happy hacking! > > (Software patents make me grumpy.) > > // Ben -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
