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Re: Not-so-mass bug filing for the patented IDEA algorithm



On Tue, Apr 10, 2007 at 01:51:13PM +0100, Neil Williams wrote:

> IANAL, but being open source, a patent lawyer would probably try to
> claim that distributing the code ALLOWS the infringement of the patent
> as if that makes Debian complicit in the infringement.

Er, by definition a patent is supposed to include a complete description of
the invention that would permit a third-party to reimplement the invention,
in exchange for granting the inventor exclusive rights to the invention for
a limited time.  Would you argue that distributing copies of the patent
application is infringement, too?

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/



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