This is the mail archive of the crossgcc@cygnus.com mailing list for the crossgcc project.
Index Nav: | [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index] | |
---|---|---|
Message Nav: | [Date Prev] [Date Next] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] |
Now, I would argue the opposite (naturally ;-). The way I see it, there are three options: 1) Make everything freely available, the natural consequence being, IMHO, that we all go out of business. 2) Patent everything, thus protecting intellectual property rights while publicly dicslosing the implementation details of everything. The cosequences here are much more widespread than (1), since eventually it will become difficult to build *anything* without tripping over someone else's patents. That software *can* be patented seems like a real stretch to me. 3) Keep trade secrets secret. This approach seems to have the fewest consequences. The company that invested in a product's development gets to make a living selling it, while everyone else is free to reimplement it at will. The entire GNU project is a fine example of this approach. If (2) prevailed, FSF would spend each of every day in court defending its patent infingement for simple things, such as a program to translate high-level computer language programs into machine object code. My own fear is that we will all live to see the day when (2) makes it impossible to be viable as a small company. -brian >-----Original Message----- >From: Richard Stallman [SMTP:rms@santafe.edu] >Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 1998 11:27 PM >To: ralph_muha@ycrdi.com >Cc: crossgcc@cygnus.com >Subject: Re: Results of "downloading compressed program images" request > > we're not talking about PC hardware! we're talking about standalone > products: > >I see the difference, but I don't think the difference is all that >significant. Technical trade secrecy is always >antisocial--discouraging it is one of the stated reasons for having a >patent system--and while the amount of harm it does varies from case >to case, it does not deserve sympathy. >