From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263455AbUJ2SHi (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Oct 2004 14:07:38 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263451AbUJ2SEL (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Oct 2004 14:04:11 -0400 Received: from pop.gmx.de ([213.165.64.20]:50332 "HELO mail.gmx.net") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S263382AbUJ2R7X (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Oct 2004 13:59:23 -0400 X-Authenticated: #15156664 Message-ID: <015101c4bde1$1051bce0$8511050a@alexs> From: "Alexander Stohr" To: "Jon Smirl" Cc: , , References: <1098806794.6000.7.camel@tara.firmix.at> Subject: Re: Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable?] Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:12:15 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi Jon, Hi audience, (I just got aware of that discussion because i got that mail CCed trough a resend on a general discussion list about software patents.) Even if ATI and nVidia, plus maybe even IBM, would sign a well written and working agreement between them all, it would not stop anybody else out there in the world that is holding patents from inspecting the unveiled data and then looking for specific things that might work for pressing out some Billion dollars from those companys. Patents do work, but they do work mostly for the lawers income, and for companys that have the only purpose for getting revenues from a "bought up" patent portfolio. Those can be really nastys, even if you are Microsoft you dont like to pull out some tons of code from your web browser just because someone else is (really!) holding a patent for plugin technology like used for ActiveX. BTW, did you know that the main study on SCO source in the Linux core is from 1999, according to the SCO lawyers. Lets say it took two engineers some two months for fiddeling out all those details in the 500.000 lines where there were similarities to SCO code - then that was an effort of some 30.000 USD - and according to SCO there was no bigger study before that and no bigger study after that research. And now SCO is reporting a 30.000.000 USD (thirty million) effort shedule for upcoming lawyers work in the SCO vs. IBM case. You dont want to go to court unless someone really forces you to do so. You dont even want to do that despite you are as big as ATI or nVidia. For such amounts you better want to hire some 300 high rank developers rather than some 6 high paid lawyers with their full office staff - just to stop others from charging you repeatedly with a per-chip-tax that sums up to some 10 Million a year _per patent_ with options for up to back propagation of charges for the previous 20 years. Much worser, as soon as you have redesigned your chip desing to something else less performant there is absolutely no guarantee that tomorrow there will be no other person starting charging you once again and again for another topic. You might now understand, keeping the IP of a company a company secret despite having several patents is a vital measure for keeping the business running well for the very own benefit and not for the pocket of some other people, including the big big pockets of his lawyers. Technology was meant for getting a nice refund from other people for providing them wanted products. That is the true base of the "demand and delivery" market concept. Getting distracted from that economy core by courtroum events is contra productive. Therefore its a well funded strategy of any company to avoid getting to court so that they can in turn preserve their productivity and end up in a nice benefit. -Alex. > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > > From: Jon Smirl > > Reply-To: Jon Smirl > > To: Dave Airlie > > Cc: Kendall Bennett , Linux Kernel Mailing > > List > > Subject: Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable? > > Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 23:55:58 -0400 > > I wish they could just get together and agree not to sue each other > > over stupid things like register designs and programming models. The > > designs are horrible on both cards due to accumulation of historical > > cruft. Save the lawsuits for the core of the engines if you really > > have to sue each other. > > > > -- > > Jon Smirl