[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout

[andre999]

Romain d'Alverny a écrit :
>
> Le 13 déc. 2010 à 13:50, Philippe DIDIER<philippedidier at laposte.net>  a écrit :
>> The creator of a software can be prosecuted on the basis of patents even
>> if they were registered later !!!!
>
> Of course, nothing new here.
>
> That does not, however, prove that the motive of the prosecution (hence the prosecution itself) is valid.
>
> Because of unprecise/unvalid registration, prior art, fuzzy/broken status of software patents in the EU, or other reason that would have to be demonstrated during a trial.
>
> So whatever you do, as soon as you publish/release some "hot" technology, you have to be aware of the environment; it is a matter of risk management, and of provisioning the means for such a trial (legal counselling, money, communication, disclosure), should it happen (that is, should it be reasonably worth it for someone to initiate).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Romain

An additional problem with patents, which are supposed to protect 
techniques or methods developped by the patenter, it that they are 
issued after searches for conflicting patents, but not after verifying 
the existance of prior art, or even that the technique/method actually 
works.
(At least that is how it works in the U.S./Canada.)
Patents are not supposed to cover logic as such.
Which becomes problematic with software, which is basically logic 
fashioned into algorithms, to accomplish some task.
Which is why countries such as Canada don't issue patents for software.
And why most software patents will not be enforceable, even where they 
do exist.

Note also that even an enforceable software patent only gives the patent 
holder a civil right to demand compensation for the use of the methods 
of the patent.  A patent holder is not required to demand such 
compensation, and in many cases, it will not be in their interest to do so.
Such as free/open source software where there is no opportunity to 
collect royalties, and where engaging pursuits against such usage will 
likely lead to the development of alternate solutions, which lessen the 
chance of collecting royalties from other users.

my 2 cents :)

André