[IronPython] Patent concerns

[M. David Peterson]

So then why not read the source code, get some ideas, possibly use some of
the code if it makes sense as such, and include a copy of the license and
copyright notice with your redistribution to cover your legal requirements.

Of course if the project was GPL'd, which is incompatible (as far as I know)
with the MSPL (as well as pretty much every BSD-like license), then the
clause in the license stating that the the subsequent license MUST be
compatible with the MSPL would obviously present a problem.  So I guess I
can now see where you are going with this.

Interesting dilemma.

On 6/1/07, Curt Hagenlocher <curt at hagenlocher.org> wrote:
>
> On 6/1/07, M. David Peterson <xmlhacker at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 6/1/07, Curt Hagenlocher < curt at hagenlocher.org> wrote:
> >
> > > "Independent rediscovery" does not protect you from claims of patent
> > > infringement, only from copyright infringement.
> > >
> >
> > Unless I am misreading, it seems you are suggesting that the protection
> > comes in the form of copyright, not patent, and therefore could present a
> > problem.  Have I misinterpreted?
> >
>
> Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I want to contribute source code
> to the "ZincPython" project.  There are two ways that my work could cause
> legal problems: it might infringe on someone's patent, or it might be copied
> wholesale from someone else's work.  For patent infringement, it doesn't
> really matter where the code came from -- I wrote it, I copied it, I
> channeled it from a 12,000-year-old programmer named Klaatu -- if it
> infringes, it infringes.  In order for copyright violation to have happened,
> on the other hand, I have to actually have had access to the code being
> copied.
>
> Some projects apparently try to protect themselves from *claims* of
> copyright violation by asking that their donors refrain from looking at
> similar or related (and usually competing) source code.
>
> Now that I think about it, though, reading someone else's source code
> might expose me to a clever idea that (unbeknownst to me) is patented --
> thereby increasing the risk that I inadvertently infringe on a patent when I
> independently reimplement similar functionality.  I guess I'm just biased
> against that idea because brilliant technique so rarely seems important to
> me.
>
> --
> Curt Hagenlocher
> curt at hagenlocher.org
>
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>
>


-- 
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354 |
http://dev.aol.com/blog/3155
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