On 17 Jul 2002 14:55:47 +0300 Oleg Goldshmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > doubt that UC Berkeley could have made a DARPA project commercial in > the 80s.
No, they couldn't.
> because the patents were not licensed. Now they can. This is more
> freedom, not less, or so it seems.
It's more freedom -> for them (to sell the fruits of research).
It's less freedom -> for everybody else (to use those results).
> This does not contradict my point: whether you are employed by a
> company or by a university, your employer owns the IP you
> produce.
But note the difference between them:
Company - Private entity. Doesn't owe the general public anything.
University - Is (or should) be governed by public interests.
Previously academic employers had motivation to let everybody in the
world to use the results (publish-or-perish). Now they have substantial
incentive not to this.
> The point of reference is 1980 throughout the article. Nothing new.
It takes time until change in laws affect many institutions, and it
takes more time until the effect has significant impact on the general
public.
Examples (after 1980) to the delayed effect:
1. Berkeley TCP/IP stack. Released to the public ~1982.
2. X11 released circa 1985 by MIT. Had unencumbered license.
3. AFS (Andrew-File-System). Developed at CMU in late-80's.
Source rights *sold* in the beginning of 90's to Transarc
(subsidiary of IBM). BTW: Lately, the last supported source
was released as OpenAFS.
As another example, look at software patents:
http://www.lpf.org/Patents/lpf/against-software-patents.txt
This article from 1991 (YES - 11 YEARS AGO) talks about what
patenting software will cause. However, most of the predictions
appearing within, has (regretfully) become true in the last few years.
So, it seems that:
"Bad laws will hit you real hard about 7 to 12 years from
their institution"
Oron's Axiom :-)
Start thinking about "Fritz" laws and shudder...
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Oron Peled Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
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"Linux: like the air you breathe, ubiquitous and free"
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