Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[RJack]

On 8/20/2010 2:19 PM, Hyman Rosen wrote:
> On 8/20/2010 1:11 PM, RJack wrote:
> > Good. then we can stop all this software patent indemnity blather
> > with the GPL
>
> If you wish to copy and distribute software which incorporates
> patented processes under the GPL, you must arrange for all
> downstream recipients to have the same rights to practice the patent
> that you do when they further use, copy, and distribute the software
> under the GPL. If the patents are your own, that's simple. If they're
> not, that could be considerably complicated.
>
> The point is to avoid the promissory estoppel

You keep talking about promissory estoppel and you're gonna' piss off a
whole lot of your GNUtian friends including your mother PJ.

> that would result from ostensibly distributing free software but
> actually having that software be encumbered so that some users would
> not have the freedom that the GPL is supposed to guarantee.
>
> Note that the GPL does not actually require you to obtain rights to
> patents practiced in the software. It only requires that all be
> treated equally - you cannot copy and distribute the GPLed work of
> others if you have arranged things so that some downstream recipients
> have more rights to practice the patents than others.

Sincerely,
RJack :)