Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LibreOffice mention in Fortune

On 06/14/2014 08:46 AM, Simon Phipps wrote:
> Only small, but it's something :-)
>
> http://fortune.com/2014/06/13/the-one-asterisk-on-teslas-patent-giveaway/
>
>
> S.
Interesting mention but there is a fundamental difference between 
patents and copyrights. Patents have a limited life of about 25-30 years 
while copyrights can last well over 100 years depending on the precise 
circumstances. FOSS is generally dealing with copyrights not patents; 
AOO and LO are both copyrighted under a permissive license allowing 
others to modify the code without needing to contact the copyright 
owners. There is no such licensing scheme with patents only the 
forbearance of the patent owner not to sue. What Tesla announced is they 
are going to sue others for patent infringement but any patent lawyer 
would like a signed contract stating that before they would approve 
infringement. With the FOSS licenses, rights are explicitly granted to 
the users beyond those granted by normal copyrights and user 
responsibilities are enumerated. I know what I can do under GPLv3 and 
what my obligations are to the copyright holder by reading the license.

What I find interesting is the reporter even bothered to mention that 
there are whole communities who are doing something similar to what Elon 
Musk is trying to do in the auto industry.

--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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