On Mar 6, 2011, at 10:24 PM, Nick Brown wrote: > "I have no idea why you would conclude that the elimination of > software patents equates to "no legal protections"." > ...I think you are missing the point of labeling an argument as a > "false dilemma". > > "We live in a world where software patents are accepted in the U.S. > yet open source projects already have essentially no legal protection > from patents. They can't afford to get any. Companies don't sue them > because they know they have no money." > Tell that to SCO.
Why? SCO's lawsuit was never about any patents. It was about licensing and copyright claims. You should really read Groklaw more - I've been following the SCO lawsuit there since it started. > Many (if not most) major open source projects are backed by major > corporations which have plenty of money. What are you smoking? I'm a member of the Apache Software Foundation. We get donations from corporations but we aren't "backed" by any corporate entities. The Eclipse Foundation also has many corporate sponsors. Nothing that I am aware of requires them to jump in and defend patent suits against their projects. So please tell me what projects you are referring to that have this kind of protection. > > "This is about the most awful idea I've ever heard of. You guys must > have never been to court or followed a court case because you > obviously have no idea how much it costs to bring a case to > conclusion. The only thing that differs here than what is currently in > effect is that the inventor has to "prove" his patent in court, > whatever that means. That still involves depositions, motions, > research, and a jury trial (they always want a jury trial because a > jury is bound to be far more clueless than a judge). " > Yeah, thats the point. Making it expensive to enforce your patent > would reduce the appeal for patent trolls. Ahhh, no. It would still be just as expensive to defend against patent trolls as it is today. It might be slightly more expensive for the "infringed party", but not necessarily enough to change things much. Ralph -- 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.
