Re: Patent clauses in licenses
Andrew Suffield writes:
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 08:17:27AM -0400, Glenn Maynard wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 12:25:21PM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> > > > And again, I don't believe "the freedom to prosecute with patent
> > > > accusations" is an important "freedom" to protect, any more than
> > > > "freedom to take my software proprietary". I think it's valid and
> > > > legitimate for a free license to restrict this "freedom".
> > >
> > > Same old bogus comparison; you never *had* the freedom to take the
> > > software proprietary, so you can't protect it. You *did* have the
> > > freedom to prosecute with patent accusations.
> >
> > By that line of reasoning, you never had the freedom to use my software
> > while at the same time alleging that it violates your patents
>
> You can't combine things of different type like that.
Computer programs, by their nature, combine both copyrightable and
patentable elements. Neither Glenn nor patent lawsuit termination
clauses were the first to combine them.
Michael Poole
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