Open Source Public Feedback on RAND licenses

Just as a concerned developer of the Open Source community, I would
say that if you folks enact a patent policy that passes standards that
require patent royalties to implement, you can pretty well forget
about any Open Source community support.  

Not just because we will be bitter (which we will) and won't give your
standards or your organization in general as much credence as we have
in the past, but simply because Open Source projects like Apache and
Linux will be UNABLE to implement patent-based standards.

The GNU GPL prevents software with additional patent limitations on
distribution, and compliance with the spirit of the BSD-derived
licenses would require no royalties for commercial or non-profit uses
of the software.

	Braddock Gaskill

-- 
"We are Tajiks and we do not like the Pashtun.  They are cruel."
	-Village leader in central Afghanistan

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 14:06:30 UTC