Author: Tord Romstad
Date: 06:33:51 01/08/04
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On January 08, 2004 at 08:59:57, Ed Trice wrote: >On January 08, 2004 at 05:49:17, Tord Romstad wrote: > >> >>There is a very simple solution to this problem: In the GUI, one could >>just include the possibility for the user to save his favorite starting >>positions. >> >Then that would be the same thing as infringing on the patent. Are you really claiming that writing a GUI for (say) Capablanca's chess with support for saving positions or games is patent infringement? I am neither a lawyer nor a businessman, and I don't live in the US, but this seems completely insane to me. By the same reasoning, it would be illegal to make a GUI for Capablanca's chess scriptable, because that also would enable the user to play Gothic Chess without manually setting up the correct initial position. And if someone extended xboard to support Capablanca's chess, they would have to disable the -lpf and -lgf startup flags in xboard. >In the United States, there are only three forms of criminal felonies that >cannot be "plea bargained" upon a first offense. > >1. Murder >2. Counterfeiting >3. Patent Infringement > >Again, if you would rather roll the dice and wait to be dragged into a court in >Philadelphia than pay $1, with all of these discussions logged as my Exhibit >'A', there is not a judge in the world who would not throw the book at you for >the maximum penalty. You have nothing to fear from me -- I was not presenting my plans, only pointing out the absurdity (to my eyes, and it seems that I am not alone) of having a patent on one specific opening position. Tord
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