[Wolves] [Fwd: [Debian-uk] Sun have (probably) patented apt-get]

[sparkes]

last chance to get your faxes and emails in before the morning here are 
a couple of examples of swp gone mad.

sparkes
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Debian-uk] Sun have (probably) patented apt-get
Date: 	Mon, 4 Jul 2005 11:44:07 +0100
From: 	Wookey <wookey at aleph1.co.uk>
Organization: 	Aleph One Ltd
To: 	Debian-UK <debian-uk at chiark.greenend.org.uk>



Take a look at this patent (granted this week in europe)

http://gauss.ffii.org/PatentView/EP1170667

I'm fairly sure that apt-get and associated package-integratity checking
tools could be considered infringing. (Does dpkg/apt have a modular structure?)

A timely reminder of why we _really_ don't want swpats. (final chance to say
'no' vote on wednesday for those who don't know...) I'm not sure that Debian
as an entity has really weighed in on this debate. As one of the biggest
distros in europe, maybe we should...

There is also the even-more outrageous:
http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatVcrEn
which is a patent for intel (also granted this week) on 'recording digital
video+subtitles (or any 'extra' info) to ram'. <boggle>

Wookey
-- 
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work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/     play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/

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