Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:47:27 -0700 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why FreeBSD not popular on hardware vendors Message-ID: <20081215204726.GJ60187@kokopelli.hydra> In-Reply-To: <1229344057.1647.49.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> References: <20081212181258.GE36348@kokopelli.hydra> <ghuau9$juk$1@ger.gmane.org> <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> <1229344057.1647.49.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au>
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--NgG1H2o5aFKkgPy/ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 10:27:30PM +1000, Da Rock wrote: >=20 > If you have done your own research then the algorithms wouldn't > necessarily be the same- they'd nearly certainly be different, wouldn't > they? So isn't that the basis for the patent? A patent is a registration > of an idea. Two different ideas can still arrive at the same conclusion. Patents are often about methods, not algorithms. In fact, there's supposedly a restriction against algorithms being patented -- though of course lawmakers and people working at the patent office don't seem to know what an algorithm is, so algorithms do get patented all the time. Anyway . . . as it happens, patenting a "method" provides far more broad power than patenting an algorithm, anyway, in practice. That's one of the reason (software) patents are so damaging. --=20 Chad Perrin [ content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] Quoth Reginald Braithwaite: "Nor is it as easy as piling more features on regardless of how well they fit or whether people will actually use them. Otherwise Windows would have 97% of the market and OS X 3%. (Oh wait.)" --NgG1H2o5aFKkgPy/ Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAklGwl4ACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKV/owCfepYsnuzwm92yPQ+NKJqKjLRv 7mIAoIC+U2XUq2WgAWMsNOqIwdGo074h =8E7O -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --NgG1H2o5aFKkgPy/--
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