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On Thursday 23 June 2005 10:32 pm, Robin Cornelius wrote: > This is not directly on topic but I though it may be intresting to some. Seeing as a lot of members have, are or may consider working for SME's in a free software or just general IT scenario, I don't think it's off-topic. > for me to *discuss* anything *technical* with them that is not in the > public domain. (Theres that *technical* word again :-( ) Is that techical-as-such or just technical? (in-joke from sw-pat land) The UKPO say that computer software is not patentable. Yes, read that again. They say that software is not patentable - because once software has a "technical" nature, it ceases to become software-as-such and becomes an invention. Uh? If I plug a fuse into an orange, does it become a lemon? If I paint an orange yellow, is that a lemon? If I swear on oath that it IS a lemon, does that make it a lemon? Does it even make it "not an orange"? Or an orange-as-such? If I draw a picture of an orange in yellow, is that now a picture of a lemon? If I create that picture of an orange on a computer, how is that an invention? !!!! Past experience has shown that anything performed in a field of technology, such as IT, is inherently technical so there is, in UKPO-land, no such thing as software. You don't install software in their terms, you implement an invention. AFAICT, software to the UKPO is source code that is never run on a computer or even compiled. Hmmm. > It went on with more and more stupid examples to the extent that if i take > a battery out of the EU and give it to some one (it **MAY** be used by a > terrorist) and i don't have an export licence so I'm guilty!. Quick! Someone tell MI6 and the FBI, I gave my nephew in Canada a digital camera that I brought from the UK! (And yes, I am self-employed so I am a SME, just not an IT SME.) > On the plus side, they were quite clear about the "public domain" bit so > making software open source (and available publicly etc as normal) avoids > all these export problems That's a relief! Steps to protect the code: 1. GNU GPL headers in every file. 2. Commit your code to CVS. 3. Install ViewCVS or similar. Done. Every commit instantly published. > so maybe a positive spin can be taken from this > for free software. If i need to send SW anywhere, I'll just open source it > first, that way i am compliant with the law but *everyone* can then see it > so how does this stop terrorism? :-) > Is it me or is the world going nuts? Didn't you know? The poodle is running it's master's war. HMV? Blair's running HMW. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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