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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!grumpy.fl.net.au!news.webspan.net!newsfeeds.sol.net!newspump.sol.net!mindspring!usenet From: kpneal@pobox.com (Kevin P. Neal) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux vs whatever Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 05:25:29 GMT Organization: Bedroom Retrocomputing Lines: 19 Message-ID: <5crvoc$up4@camel2.mindspring.com> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <m23evrulla.fsf@desk.crynwr.com> <32EA25AB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <5qC7y0gTzDLB091yn@ibm.net> <5ciraf$gs@cynic.portal.ca> <32EE0B70.1657@ml.com> <87zpxs7uwg.fsf@murkwood.gaffaneys.com> Reply-To: kpneal@pobox.com NNTP-Posting-Host: user-168-121-39-4.dialup.mindspring.com X-Server-Date: 31 Jan 1997 05:25:32 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:155338 comp.os.linux.networking:66775 comp.os.linux.setup:94768 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5812 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2164 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:51472 comp.os.os2.advocacy:264600 Zach Heilig <zach@blizzard.gaffaneys.com> wrote: >[1] different topic... does this mean one software package I own that >was distributed on a ROM dated and copyright (by Microsoft even) 10 >years before the patent was issued... is now in violation of that >patent since it uses 'XOR' to blink the cursor? Yes, because they didn't document publically the fact that they did the cursor that way. "Prior art" it's called, and the XOR patent stands because no prior art exists. I think the League for Programming Freedom is big into this topic. See the web page: http://www.lpf.org (I think). -- XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Junior, Comp. Sci. - kpneal@pobox.com XCOMM House of Retrocomputing: - kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu XCOMM http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/ - kevinneal@bix.com XCOMM "Rebooting with command:" -- SPARCstation 10 boot prom