Software patents and FreeBSD
Howdy, i'll be meeting tuesday with staffers for my congressman (since he's still in D.C.) to discuss software patents and the "evil" behind them. I've got a new perspective on the troubles they can cause given my Summer of Code project which is licensed under the APSL (http:// www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/) (my project: http:// wikitest.freebsd.org/moin.cgi/launchd) What are some good points, on how software patents, could/have affected the FreeBSD project? I can make a case for how beneficial having something like FreeBSD has been for the I.T. industry, but i'd also like to be able to demonstrate the harm that software patents can cause to a large open source project like FreeBSD. Cheers, -R. Tyler Ballance ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Software patents
On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 09:18:34PM +, Jens Rehsack wrote: > Todd Stephens wrote: > But if any algorithm used in bsd will be patented in europe and > the patent became valid, they may have a problem either. I don't know about Europe, but if the algorithm existed in *BSD prior to the patent, that would be "prior art", and it would invalidate the patent. Given the way changes have been introduced into the code base in the various BSDs, there shouldn't be any problem documenting that BSD had it first. The problem is not on things that already exist; they can generally be documented. The problem is granting patents on trivial improvements, like "one click shopping". Patent law was never intended to protect that sort of thing. Bob Hall ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Software patents
Todd Stephens wrote: On Friday 12 September 2003 06:05 am, Ruben de Groot wrote: I think he was talking about putting a protest on the freebsd website, like some linux distributions have done (eg http://www.debian.org) This would be free, wouldn't it ? A large part of the reason of why I switched to FreeBSD from Linux was the absence of the patent/license fanaticism you find in the Linux community. If this were a Linux mailing list, 3/4 of the messages would be about the GPL and how MS is evil, while here we have nearly all messages being oriented towards learning how to use and improve FreeBSD. Hm, I think our current problem with the software politic in europe is a little bit more heavy than ms evil :-) I don't know about america, but our politicans didn't have neither any knowledge about software technology nor any idea about the consequences of allowing patents for thinggies like amazon's "One Click Buy" patent. But - by the way - any interested german who had read www.heise.de this week should had noticed that enough protests reached german politicans to open their eyes to the real virtual world. I can't believe other european countries missed that. So now is definitively to late for any protest on freebsd.org - 12 month earlier could had been a good idea (to wake up sleeping guys). But at the moment all of them are informed and inform their represants, too. I think the *BSD communities are comfortable enough in their positions that they don't need to direct so much attention to themselves in that way. But if any algorithm used in bsd will be patented in europe and the patent became valid, they may have a problem either. Best, Jens ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Software patents
On Friday 12 September 2003 06:05 am, Ruben de Groot wrote: > I think he was talking about putting a protest on the freebsd > website, like some linux distributions have done (eg > http://www.debian.org) This would be free, wouldn't it ? A large part of the reason of why I switched to FreeBSD from Linux was the absence of the patent/license fanaticism you find in the Linux community. If this were a Linux mailing list, 3/4 of the messages would be about the GPL and how MS is evil, while here we have nearly all messages being oriented towards learning how to use and improve FreeBSD. I think the *BSD communities are comfortable enough in their positions that they don't need to direct so much attention to themselves in that way. -- Todd Stephens ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Software patents
On Thu, Sep 11, 2003 at 11:58:23PM -0700, Kris Kennaway typed: > On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 08:53:37AM +0200, Mickael Suzenne wrote: > > Hi the team ! > > > > I was wondering why you haven't placed any advert to protest against > > software patents european directive ? Nor you, neither Net team, neither > > Open tean ... Is this because you stand in US and the europeans evolution > > don't mind ? (I hope and then I think no, but so ... why ?) > > With whose money? Yours? :-) I think he was talking about putting a protest on the freebsd website, like some linux distributions have done (eg http://www.debian.org) This would be free, wouldn't it ? > Kris ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Software patents
On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 08:53:37AM +0200, Mickael Suzenne wrote: > Hi the team ! > > I was wondering why you haven't placed any advert to protest against > software patents european directive ? Nor you, neither Net team, neither > Open tean ... Is this because you stand in US and the europeans evolution > don't mind ? (I hope and then I think no, but so ... why ?) With whose money? Yours? :-) Kris pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Software patents
Hi the team ! I was wondering why you haven't placed any advert to protest against software patents european directive ? Nor you, neither Net team, neither Open tean ... Is this because you stand in US and the europeans evolution don't mind ? (I hope and then I think no, but so ... why ?) Ok, great thanks anyway for having ressurected BSD 4.4 as a free OS. It's a so great work, let's continue with a more powered and fine grained SMP release (a stable 5.x release soon, I hope ;-)) Mickaël - sysadmin (with more Windows boxes and server than FreeBSD ones :-( ). France ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
European software patents law !!!
http://petition.eurolinux.org/ sign the petition against the new patents law. find more about this law at http://swpat.ffii.org/ and mirror their website (for load purposes). close your website as did www.gimp.org and protest with banners, and in any other way. God bless the virus industry. Yours, Alin. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
