[Asterisk-Users] g.729 - licenses and opinions

[Walt Reed]

On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 02:58:47PM -0500, Steven Critchfield said:
> On Thu, 2004-05-13 at 14:45, Kevin Walsh wrote:
> > Steven Critchfield [critch at basesys.com] wrote:
> > > So while I think it is important, I
> > > also can't seem to draw a reasonable line. 24 months in most software
> > > isn't enough time from day 0 to make any reward for the work, at least
> > > not monetarily. What software project out there do you know had a major
> > > roll out sufficiently under 24 months from beginning of programming to
> > > have paid the programming staff off after say 1 year past the initial 24
> > > months?
> > >
> > Software patents encourage monopoly rather than freedom.  Idiots write
> > a line of code and then feel that they've "invented" something.
> 
> Temporary monopoly. Of course with the current time limits, it might as
> well be permanent since the techniques will be mostly useless by the
> time they are free.

And don't forget that with patents, it actually encourages splintering of
technologies and hinders compatability. It happens all around us - GSM
vs CDMA, GIF/PNG/JPEG, MPeg/OGG/WMA, etc. With software patents,
the only benefit is to the patent holder. Users just get screwed.