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

[Kevin Walsh]

Steven Critchfield [critch at basesys.com] wrote:
> > 17 years for software patents is FAR too long, IMO, but that's an
> > entirely different story.  IMO software patents shoudln't be for more
> > than ~24 months since the industry moves so blazingly fast.
> >
> I'm of mixed feelings here. I don't like software patents at all, but
> without them, some of the voice compression that is out there would
> possibly not have been developed. What would have been the incentive for
> the telecoms to allow the public in on some of the voice compressions
> with out getting paid for the work.
>
The advantage should be obvious:  The telecom companies need common
standards so that equipment from competing suppliers can communicate
with one another.

Given an openly-usable standard, Voiceage would be free to attempt to
sell their sub-standard software with full protection from copyright
laws.  Others would be equally free to implement an independent version
that didn't rely upon IDE disks, channel limits and other nastiness.

>
> 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.
Luckily, people who live in free countries, such as England, are not
subject to such stupidity.  We are free to write anything we like
without having to hire a lawyer to check and double-check every line
of code for patent infringements.

If you're not careful, software development will turn into a legal
minefield over there;  Nobody will feel safe creating code in the USA
and will have to turn to free countries, where software patents don't
apply, to fill the demand for new software.

-- 
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  _/_/_/   _/_/      _/    _/    _/    _/_/  _/   K e v i n   W a l s h
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