[Gllug] seti

[Chris Ball]

>> On 2 Jan 2003 11:30:24, Adam Bower <abower at thebowery.co.uk> said:

   > Just a warning but some of the distributed drug/cancer finding
   > software is being run by private companies who will be taking out
   > patents on their research so that they can sell the results. You
   > may therefore unwittingly be helping out people who will make money
   > from this and you will get nothing, and then if you get cancer in
   > the future be having to pay for the drugs you helped researched (or
   > even discovered) for you treatment.

I don't have a problem with this, personally.

   > IMHO a bad thing, so make sure you read those license agreements
   > carefully!

.. but I agree with this strongly.  United Devices (is it?) got in
trouble for having a web site and application that tells you you're
curing cancer, and a license agreement that states that they also sell
your cycles to purely *commercial* clients. Since the algorithms you're
being fed aren't ``open'', there's no way of knowing whether you're
folding proteins or - for example - helping to model stockmarkets.

I haven't had any first-hand experience of the UD client, and didn't pay
huge attention to the reports - on Slashdot, I think - so please correct
me if I've misreported some of that.

- Chris.
-- 
$a="printf.net";  Chris Ball | chris at void.$a | www.$a | finger: chris@$a
| "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy
| way to factor large prime numbers."   -- Bill Gates, _The Road Ahead_.


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