Marc,
> But, as a community it doesn't affect us either, since we don't include
> patent'd software, and if we are made aware of a patent related issue, we
> work to remove it
> Unless I'm missing something?
Yep. We all spent a couple weeks discussing the ARC patent. Tom spent
several days coding a workaround.
Now imagine if someone were to hit us with a patent claim every week. Would
we get any development done? Would any commercial user be willing to use our
software without indemnity if they were getting served every month (or even
once)?
That's the threat that software patents hold for OSS.
--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco