🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan> Starting from a program (my yabba compressor, for instance), I could
Dan> apply for a patent covering Y coding, the file formats, huptries, and
Dan> everything else involved in that program. Zippy says such a patent is
Dan> useless because he can just avoid *one* of the patent methods (the file
Dan> formats, say) and he'll be safe. But that's wrong. If he uses *any* of
Dan> the methods used by the original program, he'll infringe the patent.

Hmm.  That's not my understanding of his original message.  On the
other hand, possibly I read him wrong.	In any case, the points you
make here about the difficulty of evading well-written software
patents are well taken.

Jesse Perry   jesse@franklin.com   uunet!frnkmth!jesse