Re: Software Patents: The Lowest Common Denominator

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005, Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:

> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 02:38:45 +0100
> From: Rui Miguel Seabra <rms 1407 org>
> To: foundation-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Software Patents: The Lowest Common Denominator
>
> On Sat, 2005-07-16 at 21:57 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > In an effort to let developers do what they do best and get on with
> > developing software [2] so I would like to propose a standard build flag
> > which could be used to fence off code that could be effected by software
> > patents.
>
> While Freetype has a very specific domain, GNOME doesn't.
> Software involves the combination of thousand of ideas into a single
> program, yet GNOME is a lot of programs glued together.
>
> With such a method one adds a terrible clutter and burden, and in the
> limit you may have inconsistent GNOME versions, if at all workable.
>

> It would have been much better to actively oppose software patents,

I never suggested otherwise.  You make it sound like only one approach
exists to this problem.  Opposing software patents would continue to be a
necessity.

I am saying software patents already exist and fear of them is already
causing developers to hold back in certain areas.  We are aware there is a
problem.  What plans can be made to mitigate against this problem?

Sincerely

Alan Horkan