> > > What about the legalese ?
> > You'd have to licence the protocols (if their legal status requires that - and
> > it seems probable knowing the M$ ways of doing things)
>
> You have been throwing around a lot of claims without substantiating
> any of them. You make statements purporting to be factual whereas they
> are just your (uninformed) opinion. When someone points out you are
> wrong, you just ignore that and continue on with "yes, but..." and
> just go on and on and on and on...
How can you tell I ignore that? How do you know that? The fact that I'm not
saying "yes, you're right" and then shut up, doesn't mean I'm not listening.
Oh well, I'm sorry - I'm sometimes being impatient and doing things faster
than I can think of them... ;-))))
> This is getting really tiresome. Please stop throwing out claims and
> warning everying of "problems" and other impending disasters without
> first *checking* if what you are saying has any substance. If you
> don't actually *know*, then *ask a question*, don't just say
> such-and-such is a problem/cannot be done or whatever.
OK. I'm asking a question: isn't it possible that some software protocol will
be patented in a way that requires everyone willing to use it to buy licence?
> > > Of course I can use them. At worst US citizens couldnt use it cos they have a
> > > fucked up patent system.
> > And what share of users does the US market have?
>
> Look, like Alan said, look at VFAT, NTFS, Netware and all the other
> goodies that Linux has, and there is *no problem* in the U.S.A.
> In fact, go read some history: the entire PC clone industry exists
> because the original IBM BIOS was reverse engineered. There was no
> problem doing this, and this kind of practice has happened time and
> time again in the U.S.A., so *clearly* this is a complete
> non-issue. There is a well-defined mechanism for reverse engineering a
> proprietary protocol/API.
In a word, if you discover the coca-cola recipe you can produce and sell it?
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