I had a thought the other day.....

R22000

Mac OSX now wants to make all their software come from apple's servers isn't that kind of like the idea of a repository? I know some people will bash apple and others see no problem with them. I am just wondering if they are borrowing said idea can we not at least force them to put the GPL license onto their app store? I personally would not be willing to go as far as to say sue for monetary compensation. And I thought I remembered reading in the GPL that anything using said software would need to show its source code. another bite into apples back which is honestly more of what I would rather like to see than anything else. I am no m$ fanboy no mac fanboy and no linux fanboy(well not 100% anyways.) i can see the best each has to offer for different groups of people and that is fine by me.

mfillpot

The functionality of the app store can be setup using various technologies, so the full functionality cannot be controlled via a software license. However the functionality can be patented and most likely was done by several companies to try to steal the idea.

The idea of a software repository store or catalog was created long ago, most likely by debian, but without massive funding they most likely did not file the patents necessary to lock the functionality or other distros may not have started using the same toosl.

After a search on google patents ( http://www.google.com/search?q=software+repository&btnG=Search+Patents&tbm=pts&tbo=1&hl=en ) there are over 27,000 patents on the subject and it appears that Microsoft thinks they own the best patent on the subject ( http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=5TCtAAAAEBAJ ), so we can probably guarantee that when Windows 8 starts up they will try to sue all Linux distros, Apple and the mobile OS vendors for using the software repo idea.

This just brings up the major flaws with the patent system and how so many companies are trying to strangle their competition with stolen ideas and filing vague patents are their claim to kill competition.

R22000

Yeah i wasn't thinking it was actually feasible but i figured i would ask just to see. yeah its sad that a better product is being slowed down in development for home use by microsoft and apple just because they think they own that arena. I think patent trolling is a waste of time unless it were to affect say microsoft office sales or windows sales. And i still think it is unfair that whether you are a business or a home user that you pay the same price for their product. I mean for a home user to pay even 100 dollars for home premium 7 when most people dont even spend a 1000 dollars on the computer to begin with. That's 10% of the total cost of the computer for just one piece of software that honestly contains less than a linux distro cd and its contained within a 700 mb cd. Idk just seems kinda strange that i can fully load a version of ubuntu, i am not really knowlegable in command line oriented stuff but i do know a slight bit. i can load ubuntu install all the software i need to do what i want with a computer and it takes less space than my windows 7 windows folder. i just think that is horrible.

asedt

If I understand it right copyright/licensing and patents is not exactly the same thing.

Read this if you are interested:
http://softwarefreedom.org/resources/2011/debian-patent-policy-faq.html

I don't know how it works but is it really so that a patent made on a later time can win over free/open code that was released long before the patent was filed?

While the patent system maybe is no good for software (As argued by FSF: http://endsoftpatents.org/), there is still lots of work done to protect free and open source software with the current system.

You can read more here:
http://linuxdefenders.org/

mfillpot

asedt wrote:

I don't know how it works but is it really so that a patent made on a later time can win over free/open code that was released long before the patent was filed?

As I understand it prior work can null a patent claim, but these large corporations know which courts are very quick to side with a patent holder even when a patent is invalid, which is why many corporations have been recently bringing their cases there trying to force supreme court rulings over the entire USA to quickly halt competition.

Check the tech news to see that MS and Apple are attempting to do to Samsung, HTC and Motorola around the world with their patents to attempt to slow the growth of Android.