Who's moderating this forum?

[Rahul Sundaram]

On 07/20/2010 05:01 AM, Marcel Rieux wrote:
>
> Seems I'll have to answer this one after all...
>
> What's a software patent is not a copyright on code? How this moves
> the discussion forward? Buzz off!
>   

It helps to have some basic understanding of the topic in question
before engaging in a debate.  You earlier talked about copyrighting a
name which doesn't make sense as well.  Software patents and copyright
are actually quite different.    I already provided a reference twice
that explains the difference

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Software_Patents

In brief, copyright applies to a specific implementation only.  A patent
on the other hand gives the patent owner a 20 year monopoly on
disclosure of the invention.  While you might consider particular
"inventions" as a basic idea,  it is not possible to ignore their
presence.   Red Hat Legal determines the particular course of action on
a case by basis and ultimately since they bear the risks and you do not,
you do not get to second guess that.   Your choices are to find other
sources to get the feature you want or use another distribution which
might not be affected by the issue in question.    No amount of arguing
is going to change it.

Rahul