tlug: RMS and Amazon...

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Scott" == Scott M Stone <sstone@example.com> writes:

    Scott> Just saw the story on Slashdot about RMS's call for a
    Scott> boycott of Amazon.com because they're suing based on a
    Scott> software patent -- not because of any abuse of patent laws,
    Scott> but simply because they're trying to enforce one.

Software patents do suck, you know.

With over 100,000 of the suckers outstanding, increasing at at rate of
over 25,000/year, including ones that cover things like the XOR trick
for fast cursor drawing and removal and the use of "backing store"
caches in window system servers, do you have any idea how many times a
day you infringe a patent claim by running software which uses the
patented technique without a license?

I thought not.

But you _are_ liable, you know.  Even if you don't know.  Even if you
wrote the software yourself.  Do you know what a patent search on a
single technique costs?  Hundreds of dollars if done by a pro.  Have
you done any on the stuff you've written, Mr. Professional Programmer
Scott, Sir?  If not, your professional ethics are, ah, questionable.
Can't afford it?  Tough---what happens if an infringement is proved,
and some of your customers have to take down their systems or pay
extortionary license fees?

How many here have GIFs they made with free software on their Web
site?  How many have paid Unisys their pound of flesh?  _We[1] are all 
a bunch of thieves, subject to being sued._  And we'd lose.  Probably
just have to remove the GIFs from our sites.

This is not the issue to get upset with RMS's radicalism on; software
patents could kill free software because _we cannot afford to defend_
(not even Red Hat); we can only cease and desist---or hypocritically
infringe and hope we don't get caught.

He is an asshole, of course.  But on this issue he's a useful and
correct asshole.

Footnotes:
[1]  I probably have some GIFs made by an old latex2html around
somewhere, although I only use PNGs now.

-- 
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