Software patent protest, could kde participate ?

[Frerich Raabe]

Am Wednesday 27 August 2003 09:13 schrieb Cornelius Schumacher:
> On Wednesday 27 August 2003 03:38, Frerich Raabe wrote:
> > Am Wednesday 27 August 2003 03:26 schrieb Navindra Umanee:
> > > Rob Kaper <cap at capsi.com> wrote:
> > > > I'm sorry but this was just rushed into and form a PR perspective
> > > > thowing down websites is a bad idea, generally.
> >
> > From a PR perspective, making people aware of KDE's position towards this
> > issue is a Good Thing, not only because KDE is affected by the decisions
> > made upon this patent-right proposal.
>
> I'm not aware that KDE has any position towards this issue.

Then I assume you are not aware that logic patents, which is what all the hype 
is about, will have a dangerous impact on any form of software development, 
in particular open source projects which are usally not backed by companies 
with big purses.

KDE is affected in that, assuming that Ms. McCarthy & co. get through with 
this, any kind of algorithm can be patented.  Scrollbars are patented 
already, the plugin mechanism is patented already, virus scanners are - but 
luckily those patents are not executable at european courts so far) - at 
least this is what I gathered after a few days of reading through articles, 
IANAL hence my warnings might bear some imprecisions.

- Frerich