> Unless you have patented the item, thus preventing others from > independently developing the same type of thing.... > > I despise patents because they prevent this type of situation from > playing out. A patent says "I created this, and so even if you create > it separately, you still can't use/sell/distribute it without paying > me". So, in that situation, if you create your new graphics software, > and someone needs to use certain features that the graphics software > provides, even if they (or people they know) are amazing programmers, > and they know exactly how to write that feature themselves (without you, > or anyone that has helped you), if you have patented it, then they are > forced to live under your abusive licensing simply because they are not > allowed to create it themselves and use (or distribute) it. In this > situation, your entire case falls to pieces, and we see that patents are > extremely destructive to society
I have not yet made up my mind entirely about patents, but I do tend to dislike them and I will most likely oppose them. The comment you posted a while ago regarding doctors not being able to save lives due to patenting issues has influenced my opinion a lot. I don't think I will ever patent an algorithm or a method (unless asked to do so by my employer). I think that if I made some cool graphics package, and someone comes up with another one that is very similar (and I know they did not reverse engineer mine or got my code somehow), then it is fair competition. I'll try to make a new release with better features and compete against them fairly. > (yes, i know that you are talking about copyrights and not patents, but > i think that you've been ignoring that a lot of people on the list have > been trying to say that > A) even RMS believes in the right to copyright, > B) neither RMS nor those of us in this discussion are planning on making > proprietary software, copyrights or non-free licenses illegal or > non-existant, > C) the thing that concerns us is the people who are trying to force > *everyone* to use proprietary licenses and remove the possibility of > using free licenses.) Also, I understand your concern about people trying to do away with free licenses. I oppose that. It is just as bad as enforcing free licenses only. As I said earlier, free licenses are just as valid as non-free licenses. It's nobody's place to come and tell someone that they cannot put those conditions on their products, whether it is a free or a very restrictive end-user agreement. Chris Alvarez -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
