Re: patents list is a bad idea (Was: patents)

[Xavier Bestel <xavier bestel free fr>]

Le dim 08/02/2004 à 01:56, Curtis C. Hovey a écrit :

> > A patents list is an extremely bad idea: 
[...]
> The ignorance defense does what?  Lets GNOME use the patent anyway?

Yes it does. There are tons of stupid^Wsoftware patents (even XOR
rubberbanding is patented!) but very few of them will be enforced, and
nearly none of them against free software (because individuals can't pay
much), especially when the coder can tell "sorry, I didn't know it was
patented, I'm removing offending code right now".
But once you've declared publicly you know a given patent, you're toast.

Even if building a "patents list" may seem like a good idea to you, it
will do more harm than good to free software developers. So please
don't.


	Xav