Re: [Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>] Re: Debian & BSD concerns
Fabrizio Polacco writes:
> IMHO patents protect *methods* of producing "things", and not cover the
> use of the thing itself.
It is the position of the law that in loading a program that implements a
software patent you are making the patented thing.
> So a patent holder which creates a GLP sw using his patent is granting
> use of the patent to anybody else (because he CHOOSES GPL).
No. The copyright and its license apply to the specific original work to
which they attach. Copyright does not apply to ideas. The patent applies
to the ideas described in the patent disclosure, not to any specific
implementation of them. Patent and copyright are orthogonal.
I could patent a device, publish a detailed set of drawings, parts lists
and instructions telling how to build one under the GPL, and still enforce
my patent. Publishing software implementing a patented algorithm is
essentially the same thing.
> But anyway this is questionable, when ther eis no commerce involved. In
> most country, the law explicitly says that protection is only against
> *commercial* use of the patent.
I don't believe that is the case in the US.
> And several goods are not patentable: medicines...
Medicines are patentable in the US.
> ...and algorithms,...
Though the lawyers say otherwise, software patents are patents on
algorithms.
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John Hasler This posting is in the public domain.
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