🚀 go-pugleaf

	It never fails to amaze me how people on the net seem to think that
it is somehow an evil thing that companies make money, even lots of money,
and that they protect their source of income by licenses, copyrights, and
patents.  If Farallon invented a better way to let Macs talk to each other,
why shouldn't they get a patent on it and get rich off their invention?

	You feel sorry for the PhoneNet clone companies who let Farallon
take the financial risk of doing the R&D and creating a market, and then
pop up with their own cheap clones, and who now might be put out of
business because the Farallon patent was granted?  Give me a break.  You
think the people who started those companies were so naive to think this
wouldn't happen?  Especially considering that every PhoneNet connector I've
ever seen has the words "Patents Pending" molded into the plastic.  I note
that the word "Patents" is plural; presumably there are other patents still
wending their way through the PTO?

	Besides, Farallon makes a better product than their competitors, so
it wouldn't bother me if the other guys get driven out of business (not
that that's particular germane to the questions of whether Farallon is
evil incarnate just because they got a patent issued).  We have a couple
dozen Farallon PhoneNet connectors on our network, and I've never seen one
fail.  We have exactly two NexSYS connectors (don't ask me; somebody went
out and bought them without consulting me) which have experienced a 50%
failure rate.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"My karma ran over my dogma"