Python style: exceptions vs. sys.exit()

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-10-03, J. Cliff Dyer <jcd at sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 09:15 -0500, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2008-10-03, greg <greg at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>> > Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> >> In message <00f15d41$0$20617$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com>, Steven D'Aprano
>> >> wrote:
>> >> 
>> >> > (2) Even when the source is available, it is sometimes a legal trap to
>> >> > read it with respect to patents and copyright.
>> >> 
>> >> That's not how patents work.
>> >
>> > I don't think that's how copyrights work either. As far as
>> > I know, whether something is deemed a derivative work is
>> > judged on the basis of how similar it is to another work,
>> > not whether its author had knowledge of the other work.
>> > As long as you express an idea in an original way, it
>> > shouldn't matter where you got the idea from.
>> 
>> IANAL, but IIRC it does matter when it comes to establishing
>> punative damages.  If you knowingly and intentionally infringe
>> a patent, I think you're libel for more damages than if you
>> accidentally re-invent something.  At least that's what I was
>> told...
>> 
>
> s/libel/liable/

Of course.

> When talking about legal matters, it's kind of an important
> distinction.

Once again we see why a spell-checker is no substitue for
proof-reading.

A bit of googling finds that 35 USC 284 allows the court to
increase damages up to triple the compensatory value.  Whether
or not the infringement was willful is often a primary
consideration in that decision.

http://www.invention-protection.com/ip/publications/docs/Damage_Relief_for_Patent_Infringement.html
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/willful_patent_infringement.html
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2007DLTR0006.html

If the infringer never new the invention was patented, then the
infringement can't be willful.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! I'm ANN LANDERS!!
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