I just want to say that I really miss SuSE, solid, stable, no BS all the Novell can't deliver on. On Sat, 2006-11-04 at 02:43 -0500, John E. Perry wrote:
Darryl Gregorash wrote:
On 2006-11-03 22:58, John E. Perry wrote:
Darryl Gregorash wrote:
... I won't even comment on the drivel that suggests Novell *can* dump patented code into the kernel, then assert patent rights over the kernel,
OK, then I will.
You don't seem to understand that a patent gives the holder a right to sue anyone who, in the eyes of the holder, violates the patent. And a patent is _supposed_ to be novel, but who verifies that it really is novel? Certainly not the patent bureaucrats, who haven't had a clue for
"Your Honour, here is the record showing that Novell introduced the alleged infringing code into the kernel source on <date>."
Who said anything about code introduced by Novell? It doesn't matter who put it in, if there's a patent on it. That's my point. They have recent patents (more than likely) on standard techniques in use for decades, and whether Novell's pros or Joe Redneck in his bedroom wrote the code, it's in violation until the lawyers work it out.
That's like
me borrowing your axe to chop down my front door, then having you charged with break and enter.
Not particularly farfetched in our court system :-/. And while ours is probably the worst, I've heard of similar corruption in other countries.
Don't be surprised when Microsoft, with Novell's full support, starts suing distributions over obscure kernel code violating some recent patent, and don't think it'll be easy to get it dismissed simply because the code was there long before the "new" patent was granted. Our brave new court system doesn't work that way, and Microsoft has nearly
Well, you guys are all certain and sure of all this -- but you are completely ignoring other very large players. Torvalds and Moglen are not the only players with a vested interest in seeing open source survive intact, and some of them are at least as big as Microsoft. Those of you who are so certain that Novell and Microsoft are going to cook up some big conspiracy to litigate open source software out of existence seem to be unable to grasp the fact that those very people with those vested interests are going to be *very* interested in seeing that that does not happen.
You seem to have a very Pollyanna-ish view of such as IBM, HP, Intel, etc. They're wallowing in the thick of the software patent filth. Do you really believe they'll fight Microsoft against their own patent interests?
And my bottom line is, if it comes down to it, I quite frankly don't care one iota what does happen in the great USofA, because fortunately, most of your idiotic patents are not enforceable in Canada or elsewhere -- Linux will survive , even if no American can legally use it.
Haven't you heard of the big push to get software patents in the EU? Sure, there are developers outside the US and Europe, but if Europe caves in, that blocks most of the Linux world, possibly making it non-viable in the future.
...And what makes those who've pushed BSD in this thread think it'll be immune to a patent attack?
jp
-- Kind regards Per Qvindesland Web: www.qvtech.cc Shop: http://store.qvtech.cc E-mail: per@qvtech.cc Tel: 039 682695453 Fax: 0866730128 Cell: 084 8721444