Re: the practical difference that patents make (was: Termination clauses, was: Choice of venue)

[Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> wrote:

>That things get particularly weird with the copyright regime when patents
>are held to affect the same works as copyrights is an indictment of the
>practice of both patenting and copyrighting software, not an indictment of
>our license analysis practices.

I entirely agree that there's a strong philosophical distinction between
patents and termination clauses. Further, I'd agree that the existence
of termination clauses should be enough to make us question upstream's
motives. But in today's world, the practical difference is small. I
guess the real question is "Should we be concerned about philosophical
freedomes or the practical outcomes of them?"

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.legal@srcf.ucam.org