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Re: Decompiler Project and Mailing List
- To: owinebar at free-expression dot org (Lynn Winebarger)
- Subject: Re: Decompiler Project and Mailing List
- From: Joe Buck <jbuck at synopsys dot COM>
- Date: Wed, 17 Nov 99 17:39:43 PST
- Cc: jbuck at synopsys dot com, binutils at sourceware dot cygnus dot com, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org, guile at sourceware dot cygnus dot com
> My apologies to the lists for an unwanted thread. I don't know which
> list Joe is reading from, or I'd winnow the cc: list. Unfortunately, I
> can't let this pass without comment.
I've answered Lynn in detail by private mail, since the topic isn't
relevant to these mailing lists. Summary: if anyone wants to put every
asset they own at legal risk to challenge software patents for the sake of
principle, I can respect that, but I'd recommend avoiding it if possible.
In the past, GNU project policy as I understand it has been to work around
patents by producing better free algorithms (e.g. gzip vs. compress) and
to get volunteers to do certain tasks (e.g. reverse engineering) in
countries where it is clearly legal.