> Red Hat, Slackware, FreeBSD, ... all have compress as part of the
> standard distribution. I don't think they all would do something
> that is against the law. Maybe something is wrong with the Debian's
> interpretation of the patent?
I want to explain my position on this yet another time.
I have a house and some other assets that I would probably lose if I had
to defend myself from a law suit, and I'd probably lose those assets
just from the cost of defense, even if I won the lawsuit. My reading of
this situation is that it's lawsuit bait for me to distribute patented
software without a license. If you look on Unisys web page, they say
yes you definitely need a license. Red Hat could have one for all I know.
You guys don't pay for Debian. Do I owe it to you to risk my home and all
I own just because you want an obsolete Unix utility?
Thanks
Bruce Perens
