From owner-freebsd-chat Sat May 13 19:51: 4 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix, from userid 608) id 1C21637BF99; Sat, 13 May 2000 19:51:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jonathan M. Bresler" To: redprince@redprince.net Cc: jhix@mindspring.com, chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <3.0.6.32.20000513182440.00892db0@mail85.pair.com> (redprince@redprince.net) Subject: Re: Why are people against GNU? WAS Re: 5.0 already? Message-Id: <20000514025102.1C21637BF99@hub.freebsd.org> Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 19:51:02 -0700 (PDT) Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > Mostly because the patent is rarely granted to the creator of the idea. The > current GIF fiasco is a good example. It is not Lempel and Ziw who hold > patent to Lempel-Ziw. It is Unisys. The fact that it was developed by their > employee should not make them owners of the idea. They did not teach their > employee how to think: They hired him because he already knew how to think. > They may own whatever specific products he was paid to create for them, but > they should have no claim on the algorithms he used. Those should have > remained his. > > Adam > many companies require their employees to sign an employee agreement that grants all patent rights to the employer. some of these agreements require the employer to pay the employee $1 (one dollar) for the patent rights. standard corporate lawyering includes the adoption of these agreements as a standard company policy. those that do not agree are encouraged to seek employment elsewhere. jmb To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message