Messages in this thread |  | | From | Daniel Phillips <> | Subject | Re: Tux2 - evil patents sighted | Date | Tue, 03 Oct 2000 03:57:39 +0200 |
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Alan Cox wrote: > Its also very unlikely Network Appliance would both responding to you. Its > not in their legal interest to admit lack of validity.
Yes, I know the game, Unisys played it with gif. Wait until it's in widespread use then appear out of the woodwork and demand licence fees. It's called submarining. It's evil. People and corporations who do it are little better than thugs.
Well, my part of this is to make it public before the obvious improvements end up being the subject of patent applications. I'm a designer and inventor, I do it for the satisfaction, and patents make me sick. I could have had lots of patents, I've been there first on many occasions. This is purely because I was born before somebody else, or happened to get access to a real computer before somebody else did. I got there first and high-graded the easy stuff. So what? I didn't create the things I found, they were already there. I just dug them up. They belong to everybody. Ideas are like antiquities. If I dig them up, I get paid for digging, yes, I could and should get paid very well, but I don't own those antiquities: there are laws against that. Why are we enlightened in that respect, and so barbaric when it comes to intangible ideas? Simple: the common man isn't aware of the problem. The solution is equally simple: we have to educate people. How I don't know.
We have to remember, we're doing this to ourselves. We're being fooled into doing this to ourselves by the myth of the lone inventor striking it rich. People like that myth, it plays well and they'll justify it to the ends of the earth. Perhaps they will stop if they learn how much it is costing them.
There, I feel better now. I've stated the problem, lets see if any good comes of it. I'll go back to work on my slides.
-- Daniel - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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