Microsoft has said it will not sue Linux users with regards to the company's patent claims. "We're not litigating. If we wanted to we would have done so years ago," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's VP for intellectual property and licensing, in an interview. When asked for a reply regarding the claim of Microsoft that the Linux kernel infringes 42 of its patents, Linus Torvalds replied: "Can you get a list of which ones? Before that, it's just FUD, and there's not a whole lot I can say or do. Is there prior art? Are they trivial and obvious to one skilled in the art? Would we need to work around them? We don't know, because all I've heard so far is just FUD. If MS actually wanted us to not infringe their patents, they'd tell us. Since they don't, that must mean that they actually prefer the FUD."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2007-02-22
[i]I put the math into the computer source code. At the end of the exercise, a copy of the source code will go to my customer.
This makes me so different from other people doing their job ... exactly how?[i]
The scenarios you mention above doesn't apply (and is unlikely to happen in real-world scenarios), as you are just copying the work of others. And, like you said, it's in the textbooks; it's common knowledge and public domain (with the possible exception of GPS), owned by no-one. If you had created something new, then patent law could be applicable.
Any good coder is closer to an inventor or an artist than they are to a McDonald's fry chef. That should be enormously evident.
Member since:2007-02-17
The scenarios you mention above doesn't apply (and is unlikely to happen in real-world scenarios), as you are just copying the work of others. And, like you said, it's in the textbooks; it's common knowledge and public domain (with the possible exception of GPS), owned by no-one. If you had created something new, then patent law could be applicable.
Any good coder is closer to an inventor or an artist than they are to a McDonald's fry chef. That should be enormously evident.
Every other few months I create something that, as far as I know, is new. An entirely new concept that as far as I can tell hasn't been used before by anyone anywhere. I certainly can't find a product that I can buy which does what I want, so I have to create a new design to do it.
This is the whole process of engineering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineers
There are literally millions of us worldwide.
Doesn't mean I should be able to sue someone for beeeeelions $$$$$ megabucks if they happen to think of the same thing next year. That would be extortion, pure & simple ... even if I could prove that I thought of it first.
Americans have very strange thinking sometimes, it seems, when they think they have a chance to rip people off.
Edited 2007-05-16 15:20
Member since:2006-08-30
Member since:
2007-02-17
{Stop blindly reacting to what I am saying like it's an attack on FLOSS, and read it for what it is: me saying that users of Linux sometimes act in a limited capacity as developers.}
What you don't express is, what is special about developers?
I am co-developing a bit of code right now, as it turns out. I think of a method to do what I want, to fix the problem I'm having, I get it coded & compiled and then test it out. I even bone up on the topic using (say) Wikipedia sometimes when I'm not quite sure of the math.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_lift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_inertia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gps
It is just math. It is in the textbooks. There is no secret to it.
I put the math into the computer source code. At the end of the exercise, a copy of the source code will go to my customer.
This makes me so different from other people doing their job ... exactly how?
Why should I get to rip people off and threaten other people with lawsuits if they happen to do the same task next year as I did today?
Edited 2007-05-16 14:50