October 1999
- DIVE Holly Sommer
- Admin: Kanga.Nu is going down for couple hours J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: We should be back up now J C Lawrence
- Admin: Archive updates J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: DevMUD is closing J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: Explanation of DevMUD vs MUD-Dev and a minor note J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: For those with an interest in patterns J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: Kanga.Nu Library -- first edition J C Lawrence
- weather Matthew Mihaly
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Chimera
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Travis S. Casey
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Greg Miller
- Interesting little discussion going on at /. Nathan F Yospe
- Dan Kegel: A few notes on writing multiplayer games J C Lawrence
- Dan Kegel: A few notes on writing multiplayer games Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
- Coolmud Ilya, Game Commandos
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Lazarus
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Matthew Mihaly
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Chris Turner
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Colin Coghill
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Greg Miller
- patents and muds Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
- patents and muds Sellers, Michael
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Cynbe ru Taren
- patents and muds Joe Andrieu
- patents and muds Koster, Raph
- patents and muds Cynbe ru Taren
Understand the economics: Prior art is almost irrelevant, because it
costs about $10,000 to acquire a software patent and about $1,000,000
to get one revoked on account of prior art.
So -if- you have a legal warchest the size of your opposition, you can
-hope- to get one patent revoked for every 100 that they acquire,
assuming you -do- in fact have solid prior art to show and legal chances
break your way -and- you have a decade to spend on the task.
In economc terms, it is a fool's game.
If you're playing the game even slightly rationally, you're far better
off spending your $1,000,000 getting 100 software patents of your own
and then running around signing blanket cross-license agreements.
Which is in fact what all the major players do.
If anyone here seriously has funding for megabuck efforts of this
sort, the most practical attack is probably to equip the Free Software
Foundation (or Software In The Public Interest or whatever vehicle you
prefer) with a nice fat software patent portfolio of its own, and then
go do the blanket cross-license dance like everyone else. And extend
the resulting legal umbrella over all significant Linux source via
appropriate paperwork.
Me, I'd sooner move to Finland and spend the time coding. :)
Cynbe
- Pueblo Par Winzell
- Library updates J C Lawrence
- Pueblo Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Richard Bartle
- patents and muds Scott Boding
- patents and muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- patents and muds Joel Kelso
- patents and muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- Cannon fodder mobs alternatives Aaron
- Patent problems Richard Bartle
- History of online gaming Koster, Raph
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Laurel Fan
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Laurel Fan
- historians Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Marian Griffith
- historians Mik Clarke
- historians J C Lawrence
- historians J C Lawrence
- historians cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- historians Matthew Mihaly