🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <870@nddsun1.sps.mot.com> waters@nddsun1.sps.mot.com (Mike Waters) writes:
>If you sell the code then you take your chances just like any other
>business. If you give it away without charge there is no profit in
>suing you is there?

Yes, there is.  If, for example, IBM decided that GCC used something that
they had patented, then IBM could get an injunction forbidding the FSF (and
Cygnus, for that matter) from distributing GCC.

>Why? Why hasn't this happened in fields like instant cameras (Land vs
>Kodak), electronics etc.?

Jesus.  Are you really that stupid?

Guess what:  I can start up a software company for about $5k.  On the other
hand, starting up an electronics or camera company would take at least an
order of magnitude more.  A 13-year old can write commercially successful
software, yet that same 13-year old is not likely to be able to design and
manufacture an instant camera.

>Please explain just what makes software so uniquely vulnerable? More so
>than say circuit design which has always had patents, innovation and
>small companies.

"small" companies, if you please.  Very few electronics startup companies
had less than $100k to start off with, and, yes, quite a bit of that went to
patent searches.

Now, maybe you don't think we (as a nation) should promote software design.
Fine.  I guess you also don't mind the fact that this will be the last area
in which we are likely to gain ground on forein competitors?  I guess you
also don't mind the fact that the industry would largely disappear?

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Sean Eric Fagan  | "*Never* knock on Death's door:  ring the bell and 
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