[SciPy-Dev] Procedure for new code submission (pyHHT)

[Jaidev Deshpande]

> Universities charge tuition and take in research grant money,
> and using patented inventions without paying royalties would make a
> university's program more attractive, both from students paying
> tuition and granting agencies, than otherwise. That was enough of a
> commercial nexus for that judge. It also draws on previous cases that
> limit the experimental use defense to cases where the use is "solely
> for amusement, to satisfy idle curiosity, or for strictly
> philosophical inquiry". University research programs are anything but
> idle curiosity, I'm afraid. The Supreme Court declined to review the
> case, leaving it the controlling precedent nationwide, and it has not
> been overruled to my knowledge.
>
> Here is the decision, edited down to the juiciest bits:
>
>  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/2002Madeyedit.html
>

Wow..

> Sure. You can write open source software that includes patented
> inventions. Users of that software have the responsibility to
> independently acquire a license for the patent. The fact that academic
> users have long ignored that responsibility just shows their ignorance
> of the law (and I don't entirely blame them since it's complicated);
> it is not a reflection of the law itself.

So then, what do you think we should do?