On Tuesday, 21 בFebruary 2012 17:56:15 Dotan Cohen wrote: > If anyone is worried about releasing code developed from information > gleaned in the MS documentation, then I can "contract" the work, and I > release it. Therefore it is me who would be sued. I am willing to be > the scapegoat and take that chance.
Regretfully, your noble suggestion does not give any significant protection, for various reason (IANAL): * Patents: control *use* and not implementation. So if you write "patent infringing" code, you have no problem as long as you don't run it. However, your users are at a risk. (as a demo, see how MS threaten OEM's for Android use and not Google) * You may think about idemnifying your users (i.e: promise to financially back their damages), but this isn't a reasonable option unless you have spare cache in the 5-6 digits range (USA, in dollars). * Copyrights: this is a lesser risk, since we know free software developers do not copy/derive code from MS. However, even in this case -- if you are sued for copyright infringment, there's nothing that protect your users from being sued also (In the USA the MPAA/RIAA reminds everybody of this fact -- they sue the end users even if they downloaded infringing content from other "infringing party", like youtube/pirate-bay/etc.) > That means that the code will be released under GLP but the copyright > remains with me, not you. But I think you guys know me, my intention > is only to protect the real author, not to profit from the code. Profit from free software is not a shame. On the contrary, the client gets the program he asked for and as a bonus it's free software -- So the client gets better value for money. That's why I'm really sorry to hit your inovative bussiness model. I wish it would be feasible. > ...The true author can remain anonymous if he wishes. Again, this isn't too practical these days (with BB anywhere). -- Oron Peled Voice: +972-4-8228492 o...@actcom.co.il http://users.actcom.co.il/~oron God is real... unless declared an integer. _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
