Re: [gnome-db] OleDB

["C.J. Collier" <cjcollier colliertech org>]

On Mon, 2003-05-12 at 09:38, Jean-Michel POURE wrote:
> Le Lundi 12 Mai 2003 18:13, Rodrigo Moya a écrit :
> > Apart from that, there's nothing we can gain from them looking at the
> > code, since we can't do the same with theirs.
> 
> During a discussion, MS ***may*** learn more about GnomeDb and discover its 
> exact scope, i.e. discover what has not yet been implemented and "patent" the 
> underlying ideas. Also, they ***may*** "patent" your ideas before you program 
> them.
> 
> No need to look at the source code. This is not a question of friendship but a 
> question of law, even if the laws should and hopefully will be changed.
> 
> There is very little you can do against it, apart asking MS a preliminary 
> written agreement that they will never "patent" your ideas worldwide, 
> including the US and Europe, nor use the "such as" clause. The agreement must 
> be a signed by an authorized person from Microsoft in the mother company, not 
> a subsidiary. It will not prevent them from "patenting" non-implemented 
> features of GnomeDB.

We take these risks being Free Software developers.  If you have ideas,
you should write them down and submit them as TODO items to provide
prior art.  Even if we don't intend to implement them, just having them
in the repository is enough.

> IMHO, the best is to stay away from MS.

I think you're mistaken.  I feel that we should befriend the company and
the employees of the company.  We could both learn much from eachother.

> Cheers, Jean-Michel

C.J.