I'm joining the choir of people who don't understand why they must be penalized for the authoritarian laws of other countries (as others have pointed out, it's not only the USA to have this problem, but this doesn't change the fact that many countries still don't have it).
Linux is full of patented technology (as others have pointed out, FAT is such one, so according to the no-patents theory, the whole world should immediately stop using *all* USB sticks from Linux, or connecting their Android phones to their PC, and if they don't do that, they're a bunch of criminals).
FreeType managed to hide patented technologies behind compile-time switches for years and I don't think anyone has ever sued them, aren't the sellers of Linux devices the only responsible for the patent compliance of the software they sell?
I'm a bit disappointed to hear replies such as "you're ignorant people, you should as well admit that you're all criminals". I do acknowledge that I am ignorant, but for this reason I'd appreciate if somebody who isn't explained to me why this patent problem can't be avoided, by people who live in more liberal countries, in the same way it was done back when the USA had those crazy laws about strong cryptography.
Is it perhaps because the GPL doesn't allow you to redistribute code exploiting patented technologies you don't own? Then why does the Linux kernel contain the patended FAT "long file names" algorithm? And isn't mesa under the X license?
Linux is full of patented technology (as others have pointed out, FAT is such one, so according to the no-patents theory, the whole world should immediately stop using *all* USB sticks from Linux, or connecting their Android phones to their PC, and if they don't do that, they're a bunch of criminals).
FreeType managed to hide patented technologies behind compile-time switches for years and I don't think anyone has ever sued them, aren't the sellers of Linux devices the only responsible for the patent compliance of the software they sell?
I'm a bit disappointed to hear replies such as "you're ignorant people, you should as well admit that you're all criminals". I do acknowledge that I am ignorant, but for this reason I'd appreciate if somebody who isn't explained to me why this patent problem can't be avoided, by people who live in more liberal countries, in the same way it was done back when the USA had those crazy laws about strong cryptography.
Is it perhaps because the GPL doesn't allow you to redistribute code exploiting patented technologies you don't own? Then why does the Linux kernel contain the patended FAT "long file names" algorithm? And isn't mesa under the X license?
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