What happened?!

Raymond · Post by *Raymond » 2003-08-28, 05:11 UTC

I just visited the web site of Totalcmd....
What happened...?!
"Shareware like Total Commander will then no longer be available. "
It's so terrible!!!!

djk · Post by *djk » 2003-08-28, 06:35 UTC

Read this:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=1568

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-08-29, 13:28 UTC

"Shareware like Total Commander will then no longer be available. "
It's so terrible!!!!

Yes, this could actually happen with those many trivial Software patents out there! If you follow the IT news a bit, you will perhaps know that Microsoft was sued for using ActiveX objects in Internet Explorer - because this is patented in the U.S.! If they lose the appeal, they will either have to pay extremely high licencing fees, or remove ActiveX completely...

Big corporations like Microsoft already struggle with these patents, but small companies like ourselves would be lost if all these patents would be enforced.

pdavit · Post by *pdavit » 2003-08-29, 19:35 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:...but small companies like ourselves would be lost if all these patents would be enforced.

I can vividly see the reasons for that but at the same time what I still don't get is how all these shareware, freeware or whatever products from US that adopts those patent laws survive! What am I missing here?

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-08-29, 22:19 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:Big corporations like Microsoft already struggle with these patents, but small companies like ourselves would be lost if all these patents would be enforced.

This patent stuff is really getting awful. Maybe the fact that even MS got bitten will change the opinion of some of the major companies (I doubt it, anyway).

I noticed that you kept the page only during the day of the protest. Other sites (even international sites like www.apache.org or www.gimp.org --there's a general mobilitation) are still keeping it. It's too late now probably, but I think the plan to keep it until the result is known, maybe even after that (have no idea). Do you think you'll follow their example or not?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-09-01, 15:05 UTC

No, the idea was to get noticed, and this worked - the European parliament has delayed their decision for 1 month to get more details about the patent laws. Unfortunately the U.S. software industry seems to have a very influencial lobby there, so the law will probably pass anyway.