Using ideas presented in papers

Alan Kay Alan.Kay at squeakland.org
Tue May 27 00:39:44 UTC 2003


I don't think you have infringed the patent. But now I'm not so sure. 
I think there used to be a provision that individuals could make a 
single version of anything for their own use (Andrew?).

I think that the patent stuff is supposed to prevent competition for 
sale of ideas and technologies, but it doesn't prevent people making 
onesies for themselves.

There is a different but related notion of "fair use" in copyright 
law. One of the things that is most under attack right now is "fair 
use" and what it means -- and indeed what patents and copyrights 
actually mean these days.

Cheers,

Alan

------

  At 5:57 PM -0400 5/26/03, Rick McGeer wrote:
>Alan,
>Of course, one should always attribute.  But there is another 
>question here. Suppose somebody patents a structure or protocol 
>without implementing it.  I independently discover the thing, or 
>something closely related, and implement it to see how it works in 
>practice, how it fits with existing stuff, etc.  In the tradition of 
>scientific publication, I want not only to write up the results but 
>also release the source so others can play with the idea, 
>experiment, extend, etc.  I've got no interest in selling the thing 
>or exploiting it commercially.  Question: have I infringed the 
>patent, am I liable for damages, etc?  It would be really nasty to 
>get sued for writing a paper...
>Best,
>Rick.
>Alan Kay writes:
>>I don't think you do need the agreement. But it is the tradition of 
>>science to always give attribution to the creators of the ideas. So 
>>"use and attribute".
>>Cheers,
>>Alan
>>-----
>>At 7:08 PM +0200 5/25/03, Hans Nikolaus Beck wrote:
>>>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>Hash: SHA1
>>>Hi,
>>>if I want to implement  an algorithm or visualization technique in 
>>>an open source project  (in fact: squeak) which was presented  in 
>>>a public paper (in this case IEEE Computer Graphics & 
>>>Visualization), do I need the agreement of the authors ? That's a 
>>>question related to the current situation of software patents and 
>>>copyright as given by law of USA.  My feeling says: I need the 
>>>agreement.
>>>Greetings
>>>
>>>Hans
>>>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>>>Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (Darwin)
>>>iD8DBQE+0Ph4X8NXna8434cRAjOvAKCC/dPtuidQ6dasGBornR+2bilpGQCg92Zj
>>>Ki5vzhrdTzT6Svb8lNmDFxU=
>>>=mnPl
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>>
>>--
>
>
>
>--
>Rick McGeer           Ph: (925) 254-2524
>50 Diablo View Road  FAX: (925) 253-0623
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