Re: [boost] [xint] Boost.XInt formal review

Subject: Re: [boost] [xint] Boost.XInt formal review
From: Chad Nelson (chad.thecomfychair_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-10 09:34:27

On Wed, 9 Mar 2011 22:52:22 -0800 (PST)
Artyom <artyomtnk_at_[hidden]> wrote:

>> Sheesh...  that's even worse than I thought. :-( In that case, I
>> think it best if I  don't even download GMP.
>
> OMG? Free software is about learning from each other. Collaboration
> not about suing each other.

Which is fine, until someone decides that collaboration isn't as much
fun as getting a big unearned paycheck at the expense of someone else.

> Now... It is legitimate action to look to other code. Use ideas.
>
> It is not ok to copy the code, but nothing prevents you reimplementing
> the code.

If someone can show that I've looked at other code, and that mine is
substantially similar (which may happen without any conscious intent
whatsoever), some lawyer can twist it into a case that I owe someone
else money for it. With the lawyer getting a big cut of it, of course.

> For protecting ideas there is patents, that by the way their usage
> rights are explicitly transfered with GPLv3 code, so if you release a
> program under GPLv3 that implement patented ideas you transfer the
> rights to use them!
>
> So stop telling "GPL-virus bullshit" I'm sorry. [...]

You've never dealt with the US legal system, have you? :-) There are
something like ten times the number of lawyers per capita in the US
than anywhere else in the world, and a few of them are always sniffing
around for anything they could possibly wring some money out of.

I want my code to be so provably far out of lawyers' sights that they
won't even think about it.
-- 
Chad Nelson
Oak Circle Software, Inc.
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