OT: nVidia driver [was: Wish list] -- nVidia doesn't own a lot of the IP

[Bryan J. Smith]

From: Alan Cox <alan at redhat.com>
> Actually its a formally defined legal process to preserve free market behaviour
> and prevent massive abuse of the citizenship, riots, war and the other
> unpleasantries that follow when society isn't working.
> How well it works is a different matter.

I'll see your wisdom there.

> The EU people I've talked to don't think thats the case interestingly. They
> will point at SuSE, at KDE, (the fact Gnome is more European than US has
> eluded them so far) and numerous other projects in the EU.

Most Americans believed the DOJ v. MS case was more of the same.  Most
didn't read the transcripts and follow the realities of the trial.

>From what I've seen, while the people in both Unions may believe it's
about them, it's really about the corporations in those Unions.  Be it
an advantages of one in a state against another, or of the union against
other unions.

> So you want patents on books, movies, and other literary works (software is
> a literary work remember...)

I think you're confusing implementations with concepts.  Movies are not
patentable.  New innovations in movie technology are.  That's why
implementations are copyrighted for many decades, whereas patents are
granted for a much shorter time.

> But nVidia and friends are how markets are supposed to work, or something like
> it. Innovation, competition and price battles - and at times co-operation. No
> different to any other market.

Yes and no.  Yes, many markets have it.  But no, we're talking products
that are obsoleted in months, instead of years.

We're already seeing community Freedomware development in the 3D space
that was only 3-4 years behind.  That is more than understandable.  The
community has never had the right to ownership to cutting-edge concepts,
at least not without the research burden that goes with it.

But it _is_ nice that we _do_ have corporate entities who _do_ at least
release Standardware so we _can_ benefit from their innovations on
Freedomware platforms _until_ the Freedomware research "catches up."

> Ah yes. Rights to justice, drinking water, not to be shot without a trial 
> (except if you look foreign) ... 

So you believe rights to software are an inalienable right?
How about a job for that matter?
Or anything else that you believe is absolutely necessary to live?

People who do not believe in entitlements aren't trying to preserve
anything but the reality that when you mandate something, you only
remove choice as well as any fiscal incentives to innovate.

Yes, most software patents are bad in the US.  They are simplistic and
take no effort at all to conceive.  And then there are real, innovative
algorithms in software, that took years of research and proof of
concepts to come about.  Those endeavors and innovations will quickly
_go_away_ if software patents are taken away.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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It is mathematically impossible for someone who makes more than you
to be anything but richer than you.  Any tax rate that penalizes them
will also penalize you similarly (to those below you, and then below
them).  Linear algebra, let alone differential calculus or even ele-
mentary concepts of limits, is mutually exclusive with US journalism.
So forget even attempting to explain how tax cuts work.  ;->