From owner-freebsd-advocacy Wed Apr 18 1:31:32 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from nef.ens.fr (nef.ens.fr [129.199.96.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EEBD837B422 for ; Wed, 18 Apr 2001 01:31:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Rahul.Siddharthan@lpt.ens.fr) Received: from corto.lpt.ens.fr (corto.lpt.ens.fr [129.199.122.2]) by nef.ens.fr (8.10.1/1.01.28121999) with ESMTP id f3I8VSq13083 ; Wed, 18 Apr 2001 10:31:28 +0200 (CEST) Received: from (rsidd@localhost) by corto.lpt.ens.fr (8.9.3/jtpda-5.3.1) id KAA31151 ; Wed, 18 Apr 2001 10:31:27 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 10:31:27 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Ted Mittelstaedt Cc: David Johnson , freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Windriver, Slackware and FreeBSD Message-ID: <20010418103127.F27000@lpt.ens.fr> Mail-Followup-To: Ted Mittelstaedt , David Johnson , freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG References: <20010418091652.A27000@lpt.ens.fr> <007201c0c7e1$65489b00$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <007201c0c7e1$65489b00$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>; from tedm@toybox.placo.com on Wed, Apr 18, 2001 at 01:27:24AM -0700 X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 3.4-STABLE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Ted Mittelstaedt said on Apr 18, 2001 at 01:27:24: > >Consider the following scenario: Apple has a patent on some very > >low-level algorithm, but doesn't tell people. (They do claim a patent > >on theming, so why not on some OS-related thing?) Their people (no > >doubt well-meaning) contribute it to FreeBSD. > > The second that an Apple employee formally contributed patented source > to FreeBSD, it would tremendously weaken the Apple patent to the point > where it would impede it's enforceability. As I understand it (IANAL), non-enforcement of patents doesn't weaken them (unlike trademarks, where you do have to enforce them actively). Unisys waited for years, until GIFs became entrenched standards on the web, before trying to enforce their LZW patent. Many big corporations did pay up. - Rahul To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message