Re: [Evolution] "Mark all as Read" - Query.

["Anthony E. Greene" <agreene pobox com>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 11:04:49PM -0700, Rob Walker wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 13:41, Janus Christensen wrote:
> > On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 05:32, Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote:
> >
> > But, yeah, I guess one shouldn't be surprised if Microsoft steals the
> > idea. Maybe Ximian should patent the concept?
>
> I think that software patents are a very yucky thing, and are being used
> in a very bad way.  However, if it is good for the goose, it is good for
> the gander, and a I think a good use of software patents would be to
> secure the use of technology to open source software.  It is a shame
> that they (restriction of the flow of information via legal means, aka
> software patents) must be used, but I think they are needed to keep
> software available.

In the U.S., there is a patent that can be used to allow anyone to use the
idea. I seem to remember that it is something like registering a prior art
with the Patent Office so that no one can try to get a restrictive patent
on the idea -- the USPTO version of copyleft. 

Using this process was suggested when Tim O'Rielly (O'Rielly Books) and
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) had a big discussion about software patents a year
or so ago.


Tony
- -- 
Anthony E. Greene <mailto:Anthony%20E %20Greene%20%3Cagreene pobox com%3E>
OpenPGP Key: 0x6C94239D/7B3D BD7D 7D91 1B44 BA26 C484 A42A 60DD 6C94 239D
AOL/Yahoo Chat: TonyG05         HomePage: <http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/>
Linux. The choice of a GNU generation <http://www.linux.org/>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Anthony E. Greene <agreene pobox com> 0x6C94239D

iD8DBQE8wAE7pCpg3WyUI50RAhVgAKDcu3q6iAbGveoMy4aJy6qgFhA5lQCg8gPd
NPNborwA7Mm6TII2Ix5IUfA=
=6S2A
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----