Mono Position Statement

[Aigars Mahinovs]

2009/7/1 Martin Owens <doctormo at gmail.com>:
> The difference is that terrorism is not legal and the law is legal by
> definition (event patent law). Stamping one's foot and shouting that the
> world isn't fair won't make patents or the Rambus precedent go away.

Depends on where you are. Software patents are only legal in US and
Japan. In some countries what we call terrorism might be legal as
well.

Stomping enough feet pretty much made software patents go away in EU.

IMHO, software patents should not be a serious worry for free software
projects. The moment software patents would become a real threat to
free software, guess who will disappear? Credible software patent
treats against a high profile free software target would be the nail
in the coffin for software patents. And even patent trolls are aware
of that. Free software has already given the society more than
software patents ever did and that is the trade-off the legislature
would have to consider when this issue will come to head in US.

-- 
Best regards,
    Aigars Mahinovs        mailto:aigarius at debian.org
  #--------------------------------------------------------------#
 | .''`.    Debian GNU/Linux (http://www.debian.org)            |
 | : :' :   Latvian Open Source Assoc. (http://www.laka.lv)     |
 | `. `'    Linux Administration and Free Software Consulting   |
 |   `-                                 (http://www.aiteki.com) |
 #--------------------------------------------------------------#