Re: [Fwd: Software patent protest, could kde participate ?]
"Timothy R. Butler" <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.kde.cafe |
|---|---|
| Organization | Universal Networks |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > I don't think so. The big mistake is the copyright of the binary code. So long as you could copyright source code, I guess that'd be okay. But some form of copyright is essential. I want to make sure if I GPL something that everyone must publically release their modified source code if they have a publically distributed binary. Otherwise, someone could try to encyrpt or otherwise obfusicate the binary to make decompiling difficult (or impossible) and ignore the terms of the GPL. The GPL only works if their is a copyright. I'd add that copyrights are strongly preferable to a patent for one reason. Patents cost several hundred dollars (plus, potentially, legal fees if you want a lawyer to do it for you), copyrights are automatically attributed when you publish something (IIRC you do need to register your copyright if you need to litigate, although I can't say for sure). If I couldn't copyright my code, it would have no protection unless that code was sure to make me enough money to make it worth trying to get a patent. -Tim - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy R. Butler Universal Networks www.uninet.info ==================== <[email protected]> ==================== | Christian Portal: | Have you not learned great lessons | | www.faithtree.com | from those who braced themselves | | GNU/Linux News: | against you and disputed the | | www.ofb.biz | passage with you? --Walt Whitman | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/UTMpK37Cns9gJ0gRAj6KAJ0apG0j18d7On1dOwVd/ZtTj4T4ggCeL/UC 9wo0nizwngpbZW9uHZch3fc= =2w+2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Kde-cafe mailing list - [email protected] http://ofb.biz/lists/listinfo.cgi/kde-cafe DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this mailinglist are the personal opinions of the author and do not represent OfB.biz: Open for Business, KDE or the author's employer.