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r00ts
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Joined: 18 Sep 2002
Posts: 21
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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 Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 11:54 am Post subject: www.kde.org closure? |
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Hello.
I was surfing to the www.kde.org site and notice it was closed due to patents? does anyone know if kde is closing for good? and why?
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Bonkie
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Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 501
Location: Antwerpen, Belgium
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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not at all, there is a march going on today in Europe to protest against patents ...  |
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r00ts
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Joined: 18 Sep 2002
Posts: 21
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:27 pm Post subject: Freaking Out |
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I was freaking out that future KDE development would cease to exist and KDE software would cease to exist....
Man it annoys me how everyone charges $$$ for software .... it should be either free or low cost upto $30NZ....
Everybody says it only $30US ... but when you convert it .... it likes a whole lot more eg. $60 NZ .... which is stupid.....
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Glenn Aitchison
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Ari Rahikkala
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Joined: 02 Oct 2002
Posts: 370
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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Charging for software is not the problem... the problem is that those who do charge for it have the money to file patents and thereby stop free software developers (nor the rest of those who don't have the money to buy licenses) from publishing stuff. Oh, and several other things. But this is one of the arguments against software patents...
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<ari> Yesh.
<laurentius> they look horny |
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soebbi
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 30 Mar 2003
Posts: 93
Location: Stadtlohn, Germany
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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e.g.: IBM has patents on "Copy & Paste" and the process bar (IIRC). They could sue everyone using such a feature, no matter how the code behind these functions might look.
It's a horrible idea. You could hardly write a dozen lines of code without breaking any patent.
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"Even though Mac Users may be only 10% of market, always remember we are the top 10%"
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axxackall
l33t
Joined: 06 Nov 2002
Posts: 651
Location: Toronto, Ontario, 3rd Rock From Sun
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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| soebbi wrote: | | It's a horrible idea. You could hardly write a dozen lines of code without breaking any patent. |
Goverments want the society of criminals: when everyone is breaking on or few laws it's easy to punish anyone who speaks against the goverment.
The problems is that it is impossible to do anything about it. people are devided into groups. The group of people who understand software patents and whose activity can be damaged by software patents is relatively small comparing to what would be required to solve the situation using democratic methods, such as elections. The constitution doesn't really help as it can be interpreted in a different way by different people, depends on their motivation.
So, it's a dead-end. Nothing we can do about it. If we want to write software FREE then we should do it underground.
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"Lisp is a programmable programming language." - John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 |
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Troy^
n00b
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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bull sh*t there is no more kde being made?
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idl
Retired Dev
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
Posts: 1728
Location: Nottingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| If I wrote some funky code with a the worlds best compression algorithm and released it under the GPL. Would a big company be able to take my code and patent it? Proivded they still provide the code under a agreement with the GPL. |
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idl
Retired Dev
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
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Location: Nottingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.gnome.org are doing the same. Good to see such unity  |
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Troy^
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Joined: 13 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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grrrrrrrrr... why is making a law suite against them?
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idl
Retired Dev
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
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Location: Nottingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Troy^ wrote: | | grrrrrrrrr... why is making a law suite against them? |
Read the page again, carefuly. |
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Savve
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Joined: 23 Aug 2003
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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port001,
not only could they patent that code, it might allready be patented, patents are a sollution to a technical problem. Meaning that in Europe someone could own the code that you have written, no matter how you write it as long as you solve a problem in a similair way to the patent, if this law becomes reality.
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shm
Advocate
Joined: 09 Dec 2002
Posts: 2380
Location: Atlanta, Universe
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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apache.org also went down, as did fsfeurope, etc.. a lot of software that could be affected by software patents did.. remember that there _are_ software patents for things like scrollbars, etc.. already in the US, and if they were ever enforced, things like KDE and GNOME would be crippled.
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what up |
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KeithReuters
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 29 Sep 2002
Posts: 130
Location: Newport Beach, California // Grenoble, France
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 12:33 am Post subject: |
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| so we'd have to pay them when using a trashcan function or a copy&paste? I'll pay them the letters 'f', 'u', 'c' and 'k'. |
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shm
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axxackall
l33t
Joined: 06 Nov 2002
Posts: 651
Location: Toronto, Ontario, 3rd Rock From Sun
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 1:58 am Post subject: |
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Why isn't www.gentoo.org down? Or Gentoo supports patents?
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"Lisp is a programmable programming language." - John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 |
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zhenlin
Veteran
Joined: 09 Nov 2002
Posts: 1361
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 2:35 am Post subject: |
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| port001 wrote: | | If I wrote some funky code with a the worlds best compression algorithm and released it under the GPL. Would a big company be able to take my code and patent it? Proivded they still provide the code under a agreement with the GPL. |
They can't patent your code. [Or copyright] They can't patent the algorithm either, since the code is 'prior art'. |
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shm
Advocate
Joined: 09 Dec 2002
Posts: 2380
Location: Atlanta, Universe
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 3:17 am Post subject: |
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| zhenlin wrote: | | port001 wrote: | | If I wrote some funky code with a the worlds best compression algorithm and released it under the GPL. Would a big company be able to take my code and patent it? Proivded they still provide the code under a agreement with the GPL. |
They can't patent your code. [Or copyright] They can't patent the algorithm either, since the code is 'prior art'. |
However, it's possible to transfer existing patents (long running, btw) on silly things in the US, and transfer them to europe and chose to enforce them there. Patents are not like trademarks, you don't lose them if you don't enforce them.
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r00ts
n00b
Joined: 18 Sep 2002
Posts: 21
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 3:57 am Post subject: software patents |
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All this talk about software patents is giving me a headache ........
why cant the world get on nicely..... for god sake more productivity would come from it.... and reduce costs of development to companies
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Glenn Aitchison
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idl
Retired Dev
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
Posts: 1728
Location: Nottingham, UK
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| axxackall wrote: | | Why isn't www.gentoo.org down? Or Gentoo supports patents? |
I mentioned it to drobbins, he said he was impartial and seen as they already have software patents in the US, not much came of it. |
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axxackall
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Joined: 06 Nov 2002
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, 3rd Rock From Sun
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| port001 wrote: | | axxackall wrote: | | Why isn't www.gentoo.org down? Or Gentoo supports patents? |
I mentioned it to drobbins, he said he was impartial and seen as they already have software patents in the US, not much came of it. |
Then what was the point for KDE and GNOME developers to bring their sites down?
I think that if EU will drop idea of software patents and many US software organizations will join the protest then it may in future make more chances that US software patents will be reconsidered.
Sitting impartial in the corner is exactly what Microsoft and other monopolies need from you, while they patent the rest unpatented yet ideas to have a control over you.
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"Lisp is a programmable programming language." - John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 |
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Htwo
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Joined: 28 May 2002
Posts: 38
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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| port001 wrote: | | axxackall wrote: | | Why isn't www.gentoo.org down? Or Gentoo supports patents? |
I mentioned it to drobbins, he said he was impartial and seen as they already have software patents in the US, not much came of it. |
Well, since he thinks software patents shouldn't be scrapped maybe we should get started on making sure that portage doesn't contain apps that infringe on software patents. Wouldn't want people to get sued for distributing patented stuff without a license, eh?
To start with we need to remove all software that uses progress bars, tabbed windows, and the clipboard without a license. These are patented.  |
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Clete2
Guru
Joined: 09 Aug 2003
Posts: 530
Location: Bloomington, Illinois
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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apache.org is doing it...
edit: sorry, that was already mentioned |
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masseya
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Joined: 17 Apr 2002
Posts: 2602
Location: Baltimore, MD
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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There is a note on the www.gentoo.org encouraging people to get involved and understand the issues involved.
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ballardb
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Joined: 17 Oct 2002
Posts: 35
Location: Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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| port001 wrote: | | axxackall wrote: | | Why isn't www.gentoo.org down? Or Gentoo supports patents? |
I mentioned it to drobbins, he said he was impartial and seen as they already have software patents in the US, not much came of it. |
Oh well, My opinion of him has gone down dramtically... Perhaps he doesnt really care about Gentoo Linux all that much ??
Not much has come of software patents in the US... Yet... dont forget software aptents are one of the big things IBM is going to fight back SCO on... we might cheer for them now... but when Linux doesnt work for IBM... guess who will suffer the "wonder" of software patents next....
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