[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Re: W3C ridiculous new policy on patents
On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 09:17:40PM -0400, John Cowan wrote: >Amy Lewis scripsit: > >> Is this deliberate naivete? A number of "hot" open source projects >> have been shut down due to enforcement of patents ... sometimes patents >> that are defensible, but more often, since most software patents are >> indefensible on their faces, not. > >Can you mention some examples? Recent or more ancient? *sigh* RSA (only in the US; threatened enforcement sometimes implied a belief in ownership of all 'difficult' problems as the basis of encryption) unix compress (from which we get gzip ... an alternative implementation is often a result) LZW compression (a particularly interesting example since, as I understand it, Unisys bought the patent as part of a merger, paying extremely little, but have very aggressively pursued it, a less than stellar example of supporting creativity ... patent shut down projects devoted to producing gif encoders, or changed their focus, and was the straw that generated the effort that produced the PNG specification) mp3 (LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder; here it isn't clear if Ogg Vorbis provides a viable alternative, but the patent owners attitude in the case is distinctly predatory) I don't know if the BSD/386 project was stifled in the early nineties with patents or with copyright law (if with copyright law, it's one of the few cases), but it was briefly unavailable due to intellectual "property" threats. Further examples can probably be generated; these are the ones that come to my mind, for one reason or another. I think the decss fiasco is based on 'trade secret' violation rather than patent law. Someone might be able to discuss the hypercard/hyperstack issues. The general rule is not that the hackers exposed have to pay over their life savings, firstborn children, and damages yea unto the seventh generation. That's the fear. Mostly the projects just get shut down, because offering an unlicensed, effectively free alternative is believed to undermine the profits of licensees, thereby reducing the income of the licensor. Threat of a lawsuit thereby stifles innovation and the progress of the useful arts. Amy! -- Amelia A. Lewis alicorn@m... amyzing@t... The flesh is strong. The spirit stronger. So shed your skin, baby. Let it through. Come on over. -- Amy Ray
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