From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 15 20:43:44 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E0ADD106564A for ; Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:43:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from outbound-mail-08.bluehost.com (outbound-mail-08.bluehost.com [69.89.17.208]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AC0BF8FC1A for ; Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:43:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: (qmail 28595 invoked by uid 0); 15 Dec 2008 20:43:44 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box183.bluehost.com) (69.89.25.183) by outboundproxy1.bluehost.com with SMTP; 15 Dec 2008 20:43:44 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=default; d=apotheon.com; h=Received:Received:Date:From:To:Subject:Message-ID:Mail-Followup-To:References:Mime-Version:Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To:User-Agent:X-Identified-User; b=ZdokV6BJxWB4Ba7kM7DPux8RDfChUc42Nm5GWfHT3S3QMs4Dwfrd8DRsLyRPyJZvCA+9MGEPIEcSWfjRWnX8ymUmUiTe/J0uj9gW702zOyFkyzMKi/1JTC60D/+5At+E; Received: from c-24-8-180-234.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([24.8.180.234] helo=kokopelli.hydra) by box183.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1LCKI3-0006qU-UR for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:43:44 -0700 Received: by kokopelli.hydra (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:43:15 -0700 Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:43:15 -0700 From: Chad Perrin To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20081215204315.GI60187@kokopelli.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20081212120437.B3687@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <20081212181258.GE36348@kokopelli.hydra> <20081212203202.H4803@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <20081212150228.520ad7f8@scorpio> <20081212212552.GF37185@kokopelli.hydra> <1229230200.18610.87.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> <20081215065327.GM5527@kokopelli.hydra> <1229325063.8820.5.camel@laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au> <49462e82.0JabFKZe33ZkdtYT%perryh@pluto.rain.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="zqjkMoGlbUJ91oFe" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <49462e82.0JabFKZe33ZkdtYT%perryh@pluto.rain.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Identified-User: {737:box183.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.org} {sentby:smtp auth 24.8.180.234 authed with ren@apotheon.org} Subject: Re: Why FreeBSD not popular on hardware vendors X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:43:45 -0000 --zqjkMoGlbUJ91oFe Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 02:16:34AM -0800, perryh@pluto.rain.com wrote: > > > Unfortunately, anything covered by a patent, as I hinted > > > above, is verboten. >=20 > Er, doesn't it depend on what is patented? If the h/w itself is > patented, but its software-visible interface is not, there should be > no problem writing a driver for that h/w. OTOH if the algorithms > used in the driver are patented it would be an infringement to > reproduce them. I said anything covered by patent. If the software is not covered by patent, you're fine to write software. Be aware, though, that a lot of patents are intentionally written in a somewhat vague way so they can be extended via case law at a later date. Nothing is "legal" under the current US system unless you can defend it in civil court. That's my general rule of thumb. --=20 Chad Perrin [ content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] Quoth markinct @techrepublic.com: "Don't take anything you do on-line lightly. Caveat Clicker..." --zqjkMoGlbUJ91oFe Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAklGwWMACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKXf4wCgjI6rnzAf/dS9dWpLqn2js/LB scIAoLOvXGSnT0yzwZmUixb0zv89sDOI =MAKH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --zqjkMoGlbUJ91oFe--