Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:05:14 +1000 From: Da Rock <rock_on_the_web@comcen.com.au> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why FreeBSD not popular on hardware vendors Message-ID: <1229385921.1647.91.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20081215232326.GC61220@kokopelli.hydra> References: <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> <20081215204315.GI60187@kokopelli.hydra> <1229375257.1647.60.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> <20081215232326.GC61220@kokopelli.hydra>
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On Mon, 2008-12-15 at 16:23 -0700, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 07:07:36AM +1000, Da Rock wrote: > > On Mon, 2008-12-15 at 13:43 -0700, Chad Perrin wrote: > > > 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. > > > > > > > > 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. > > > > That doesn't sound like a good system (US not yours) - how on earth did > > it get so screwed up? (Thats rhetorical btw, I don't mean to start a > > whole discussion on that topic on this list.) > > It's much the same everywhere, from what I've seen. The problems just > arise in different guises. Usually, judging by my observations, they > arise in large part because of the common notion that a problem can be > fixed with more of the behavior that created the problem in the first > place. > > . . . but beyond that, I'd probably start a flame war, so I don't think I > want to get more specific on the list. > Probably not- the flames would probably be directed at a common enemy rather than amongst ourselves here.
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