Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio engine stuff

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio engine stuff
From: Paul Barton-Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: to helmi  17 2000 - 07:49:02 EST


>Hmm, are patents really such a problem with GPL'ed software? I mean,
>who are they going to sue, a bunch of independent developers around
>the world?

Well, lets consider the audio niche in particular. Suppose that
Steinberg has a patent on something related to VST or ASIO. Suppose
that the Linux audio world actually picks up steam thanks to the
efforts of people on this list. Suppose some actual studios start
buying and/or using Linux GPL'ed software instead of VST/ASIO
stuff. Suppose that there is a perception of "momentum" to the whole
thing. Do you really think that Steinberg is going to sit back and say
"oh well, its just a bunch of independent developers ..."

If we are infringing on patents, it doesn't matter whether we're one
person or a giant corporation. The law will apply to us as well, and
if we're stepping on people's toes, there's a pretty good chance that
they will step back.

BTW, Juhana, I talked with my attorney friend last night, and here in
the US at least, your plan to work around a patent by providing a
script language that made it easy to implement the technology once
someone reads the patent would constitute contributory
infringement. This would apply, he said, even if you wrote the script
language *before* the patent was awarded. The language itself wouldn't
infringe, but if someone used it to infringe the patent, you'd be
implicated.

>And IMHO, it's easy to point out how these common sense software
>techniques are based on old inventions. For instance, buffer
>preloading has been used for ages. Only change is that now
>even the average PCs have loads of memory, so we can preload more
>than before.

I know that we all agree on this, and the vast majority of programmers
around the world do. The problem is that pointing out how these are
"common sense" techniques doesn't have any effect on the USPTO, and
they have a big gun: the law.

My attorney friend was also telling something that I didn't know: when
the US first decided to allow software patents, the industry trade
groups were opposed to them! Their argument was that the vast majority
of their membership was composed of small-to-medium sized companies,
and that software patent protection would simply encourage the
concentration of power in the industry in the hands of few large
corporations, and also that it would stifle innovation.

My, my. Just think: a software industry trade group that once sounded
like rms ...

>Ok, I think we all agree here, but I'd say that no company will
>start a lawsuit against a few individuals because of some
>common-sense patent.

I wish I had that conviction.

--p


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