Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:07:36 +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: <1229375257.1647.60.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20081215204315.GI60187@kokopelli.hydra> References: <20081212120437.B3687@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <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> <20081215204315.GI60187@kokopelli.hydra>
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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.)
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