On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:43:26 -0400
"Timothy Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Please, don't open Pandoras box! I haven't seen sofar one
> > case where patents have worked together with OSS/OH other then
> > giving away all rights to everyone. Anything else just asks
> > for trouble.
>
> Some of the more pushy "open everything" people have told me that
> patents would be a valid way to keep from getting ripped off, going to
> the extent of not licensing them to be free for use under GPL. What
> to do?
Yes, you can do that. It's possible. But you have to be
very very carefull. I don't see myself to be able to craft
a license term that would allow FOSS use but deny comercial
use. Beside, that would to some degree invalidate the
GPL.
The biggest thread for us is that a company comes, takes
the RTL and produces chips before we can and/or sells them
cheaper. As long as they comply with the GPL we cannot do
anything about it.
Now if you have a patent that dissalows usage of the RTL
in comercial enviroments w/o paying fees, then you take
a big amount of freedom out of the code. Yes, IMHO comercialization
of an FOSS belongs also to the freedom one should be able
to execise.
IMHO you should rather work with the copyright license
or with trade secrets (dont give the RTL away until you
think you made enoug money).
Though, currently i really doubt that there will be a company
who would take the rist of building and selling OGA.
Currently, the only ones who would buy it are OSS people.
And those have a very good sense of loyality.
Of course, if they enter the embedded market, then this
will become a problem. But there you can prove that you
have a strategy that leads to the future, while the others
are just rip offs.
Ie, right marketing would solve it in a better way
than patents possibly can.
Attila Kinali
--
心をこめて聞け心をこめて話せ
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