From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: strokes-mode and touchscreen patents? was Re: emacs and touchscreen Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:26:14 -0500 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1295058576 27740 80.91.229.12 (15 Jan 2011 02:29:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 02:29:36 +0000 (UTC) Cc: joakim@verona.se, emacs- devel To: "David O'Toole" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 15 03:29:32 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PdvtS-0000oZ-OV for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:29:31 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:42862 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PdvtS-0008Ov-20 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:29:30 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=54679 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PdvtM-0008Od-7x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:29:25 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PdvtK-0006MH-73 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:29:24 -0500 Original-Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.154.181]:29793 helo=ironport2-out.pppoe.ca) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PdvtK-0006Lz-4R for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:29:22 -0500 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AgUIALOVME1FxIbi/2dsb2JhbAAzpC90uwmFTwSEa44u X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.60,325,1291611600"; d="scan'208";a="88138669" Original-Received: from 69-196-134-226.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO ceviche.home) ([69.196.134.226]) by ironport2-out.pppoe.ca with ESMTP/TLS/ADH-AES256-SHA; 14 Jan 2011 21:29:06 -0500 Original-Received: by ceviche.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id CD6E0667A6; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:26:14 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: (David O'Toole's message of "Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:20:24 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:134562 Archived-At: > Something occurred to me today after watching my touchscreen > strokes-mode video. Could the gesture recognition in strokes.el either > 1. be threatened by patents that existed prior to 1997 (the first year > of copyright listed in strokes.el) Better not try to find out, since distributing infringing things is a more serious offense if you know it's infringing than if you don't. > or 2. qualify as prior art for techniques patented later? Most software patents have obvious prior art, according to lots of people. So, yes, that's probably the case. Then again it doesn't matter: - the court's notion of "obvious prior art" is quite different from what most people expect. - invalidating a patent is an enormous undertaking that costs a lot of money. Just stop worrying about all that crap and instead help fight the legality of software patents as a whole. Stefan