[amsat-bb] Re: soundcard modems for pactorIII

[Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ]

JoAnne Maenpaa wrote:
> On the topic of software piracy, Oscar DJ0MY mentioned ...

Who mentioned software piracy?  In nearly all of the world *outside* the 
US, it's perfectly legal to implement PACTOR III.  I think Japan is the 
only other country with software patents.  There may be some European 
countries that attempt to have software patents, but under EU law they 
shouldn't.

Here in the UK, we do not have software patents.  You can't patent 
imaginary property.


>> owner of these rights can only enforce them in those countries ...
>> It should be therefore easy for one of those very talented ...
>> ... programmers to write a software PACTOR III modem variant and
>> publish it on a [overseas] web-server to make it publicly available
>> ... blah blah blah ...
> 
> Oh yes, so easy to justify if you skip all of the steps.  Usually one needs
> to decide WHAT one is doing before one decides HOW one will do it.
> 
> WHAT: Steal software that is protected under legal rights

You can't steal imaginary property, either.  You can make an unlicenced 
copy of it, but that's not the same thing.  If you physically went into 
a shop and stole a PACTOR III modem, that would be different.

> HOW:  Just do it overseas whether other amateurs in USA or overseas 
>       condone stealing and bragging about it on amsat servers.
> 
> Most would stop at WHAT ... the stealing ...

>> could not leave the bold IP rights statement ...
> 
> And, I could not leave the bold stealing IP rights statement uncommented.

I'll care about SCS and their patent when they stop "stealing" GPLed 
software.

> There are so many good people on the -bb, where do these others come from?
No idea where you come from.  The planet Ad-Hominem, perhaps?

Gordon