Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!decwrl!shelby!neon!neon!gumby From: gumby@Cygnus.COM (David Vinayak Wallace) Newsgroups: trial.misc.legal.software Subject: Re: Capitalist Software Tools Message-ID: Date: 15 Aug 90 19:08:21 GMT References: <1990Aug15.164827.12612@portia.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System) Organization: Cygnus Support Lines: 18 In-Reply-To: dhinds@portia.Stanford.EDU's message of 15 Aug 90 16:48:27 GMT Date: 15 Aug 90 16:48:27 GMT From: dhinds@portia.Stanford.EDU (David Hinds) Most patent disputes end in licensing agreements - not one company forbidding another to make a product period. But this means I can't give my software away, since I will have to keep track of who gets copies in order to pay a licensing fee! At least I can still circulate the source if I want; patents themselves are in the public domain. If companies want to keep stuff secret, fine. Let them go back to using trade secrets (not these stupid "trade secrets" now where companies distribute .h files and then claim that they are valuable trade secrets and that you mustn't read them). Trade secrets allow me the opportunity to re-invent with impunity, and they don't amount to a government subsidy to the software industry.