Re: [realtime] License or not

[yodaiken@fsmlabs.com]

On Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 10:13:45PM +0100, Erwin Rol wrote:
> code. And i think thats the point a lot of ppl try to make. If the
> RTLinux patent is a truely defencive patent their is no reason to
> disallow others to use the idea, because they never
> will beable to get a patent on it, and let you pay. But with the current
> patent licence, it
> looks terbily like it is meant to block out comepetition for FSM, wich
> is entirely legal, thats
> the number one reason to get a patent. But than just be honest about it
> and say so. First of

I don't want to block out competition, but I have never seen a reason why we
should give away our intellectual property to people who want to work outside
GPL domain. 
	Work in GPL domain, you don't profit from intellectual property, and 
	the RTLinux method is royalty free.

	Work in the "profit from intellectual property domain" and 
	either use the RTLinux software or purchase a license to use the method.

The option:
	Work in the  profit-from-intellectual property domain and demand free use
	of other people's intellectual property as a basic right

strikes me as the kind of argument a 6 year old would use.



> all i doubt it will help, because when IBM or MS want to use it they
> will just open their patent
> box and slap a number of patents around your ears they you don't even
> know about but that you are
> breaking, until a deal that they can use your patent and you can use
> theirs. So the only
> ppl you have with it are small hardworking ppl in small companies, like
> FSM. 


This argument boils down to "might makes right".  

> 
> For everybody in Europe just pray that we never get software patents
> here. 

I have no idea why you believe that there are no software patents in Europe. Check the
IBM patent server under patents that reference the RTLinux patent and you will find a
German patent on a related idea. 
I doubt you will find a open license like ours.  


-- 
---------------------------------------------------------
Victor Yodaiken 
Finite State Machine Labs: The RTLinux Company.
 www.fsmlabs.com  www.rtlinux.com