On Thu, 23 Jul 2009, Richard Stallman wrote:
Generally speaking, standards are useful, because they enable people
to converge what they are doing. But that ceases to be true when the
use of the standard is patented. It is better to have no standard
than have a standard that invites people into danger.
An opinion with which I would differ ... patent encumbered documented
behavior is ALWAYS better than no public documentation for commonly used
protocols. As a person with frequent exposure to the operational
troubleshooting side of networks, lack of accessible documentation is
intolerable.
There is no trap when an SDO documents a protocol and publishes that
documentation with a caveat that includes documentation of one or more
patent claims related to the published protocol. Any fool who implements
the protocol without resolving those issues deserves what the get. The
trap is the case where the patent or other IP claim isn't revealed.
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