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Re: Is GCJ/Classpath headed for patent trouble?
- From: Sal <gcj at svf dot dreamhost dot com>
- To: John Gabriele <john3g at bestweb dot net>
- Cc: java at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 18:56:46 -0400
- Subject: Re: Is GCJ/Classpath headed for patent trouble?
- References: <DD3418A7-BFC2-11D8-B085-003065776B20@bestweb.net>
John Gabriele wrote:
Do GCJ & Classpath actually meet all of these requirements? These seem
pretty
stiff for GNU projects... If GCJ & Classpath don't meet these req's,
isn't the FSF
just waiting for the unpleasant day Sun decides to enforce the above
conditions?
But, what could they do? :) Maybe the FSF or some directly related
companies (Redhat?) could be potential targets for lawsuits... but the
code is out there, people all over the world have copies of it and
contribute... theres nothing Sun could really do to stop it now. And
they wouldn't make much from a profit standpoint trying to sue a bunch
of free software devs.
Even if there was some way to stop the project, someone will simply
create another repository, maybe under a different name. Look what
happened to Freecraft, after Blizzard went after them, they just renamed
and kept going, just as strong if not stronger because of all the
attention from the whole fiasco.
The best effort they could make is to try and guide gcj in the right
direction (release algorithms, specs, docs, etc.) to help keep the
platform from fragmentation. In my opinion GCJ altogether is a huge
asset to the Java platform... I hope they see this too.
Just my 2 cents.
- Sal