Re: [Patents] Hardware N Software

[Stefane Fermigier <sf@fermigier.com>]

On Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 02:33:25AM -0500, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> >There are thousands of open source shops that make a profit worldwide.
> 
> And few if any being sued for software patent infringement.  Thus the
> grossly exaggerated threat.

Probably. Some have been intimidated. Most live in fear that they might
be sued someday (esp. if software patents are allowed in Europe), or that
a crucial piece of free software their business depends on might be taken
down or crippled due to a software patent infrifement attack ?

Juste one question: why is there no Quicktime player on Linux right now,
in your opinion ? Because no one in the free software word is able to write
one, or because Apple doesn't want to ? What's the impact on the diffusion
of Linux among the masses if there is no Quicktime movie player, or
Windows Media compatible movie player on Linux ?

I my opinion, shared by many people in this group, the threat is not
"grossly exaggerated" but largely underrated.

        S.

-- 
Stéfane Fermigier, Tel: +33 (0)6 63 04 12 77 (mobile).
http://nuxeo.com/ & http://portalux.com/ & http://aful.org/
"Amazon: we patent the dot in .com"