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Re[2]: GDL2 on MacOS X
From: |
Manuel Guesdon |
Subject: |
Re[2]: GDL2 on MacOS X |
Date: |
Mon, 25 Nov 2002 16:16:12 +0100 (CET) |
On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 12:20:02 +0000 (GMT) Nicola Pero <address@hidden> wrote:
>|
>| > How are you dealing with the fact that EOModel and EOEditingContext
>| > are patented (6,085,197; 5,956,728; 5,873,093)?
>|
>| Almost anything in the computer science world is patented - from telnet to
>| software managing installation of other software to anything else. Just
>| browse the US patent archive for a list.
right, helas :-(
>| I'm not involved in the development of EOF2, and I'm not sure if the
>| actual authors are aware of the patents, but as far as I can say, there is
>| a lot of previous art making those patents invalid.
I think so too. I haven't a list but....
>| If you look on old
>| mailing lists on the net, I remember someone posting a detailed,
>| documented list of quite a few books and papers published before the
>| patents were filed, describing precisely the concepts implemented by the
>| patents. There is nothing particularly new in those patents (from a
>| computer science research point of view), really.
...as you, I think there's nothing really new from a base computing science
point of view.
>| gdl2 was also, for the most part, developed in Europe, where - I think -
>| such patents (being US patents) do not hold.
Right, AFAIK.
>| The FSF, and GNUstep, are not for profit organizations - there is no money
>| to win for Apple from a litigation with the FSF - just a lot of bad
>| marketing and a very bad feeling for OSX developers or porters to OSX.
>| Btw, Apple itself is using and distributing *a lot* of copyrighted FSF
>| software in its own MacOS X system.
I agree. IMHO, Apple can't fight the rest of the world so having support
(compatible frameworks) from 3rd party should
be intresting for them.
If I were an IT manager, I'll prefer to have an alternative solution so I could
choose Apple tools with less risks.
>| also considering that
>| Apple is not selling an Objective-C version of EOF2 themselves ... what's
>| the point ? the gdl2 authors are just providing free quality software to
>| run on Mac OSX ..
One could interpret european law to say that it's legal to provide solutions to
allow working
application to run even if some parts are discontinuated/not supported.
>| Anyway - this was just my personal rant - everyone has to make his own
>| legal evaluations and choices.
It could be nice to have an official feedback from Apple saying they're not
against GNustep
project but.... wait & see.
Manuel