Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: A quick & dirty draft

Author:Greg Kroah-Hartman
Posted:8/23/2000; 1:24:59 PM
Topic:Next survey: Are you an open source developer?
Msg #:19989 (In response to 19977)
Prev/Next:19988 / 19990

One important caveat: If you own patents on your software, please answer no.

There is a patent out there in the wild with my name on it, due to some work that I did in the past at a company. I personally do not like software (or process) patents at all, but could not do anything about the patent being granted (employment agreement when I was hired).

But I have also written a relativly moderate ammount of what I consider open source software (a number of Linux USB drivers, and a Linux USB device viewer that is in a number of Linux distributions.)

This is what I do in my free time, I write code and give it away to others. So to say that I can't say I write opensource software just because my name is on a patent that I didn't have control over, isn't a fair statement.

p.s. The patent issue is just starting to come up at my current employer. I'm finding that it is a hard argument to win against people who are used to the whole "it's a great honor to have a patent, and they are essential for a small company to survive" argument. But I'm still trying...




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