AW: copying soft/hard ware

[Haible Juergen]

	>> Even if the patent was still in force, it's not stealing, it's
	>> infringement.  Very different.  With infringement it's up to the
	>> patentee to sucessfully sue you for some appropriate damages.
With
	>> stealing, the police show up at your door.  
	>
	>If copying software is stealing, then patent infringement must be
stealing
	>too.

I have to disagree here. If you steal a wide screen tv or make an
illegal copy of your favorite software, it's pretty clear who the
original owner is.  If you admit the act of taking or copying the 
goods in question, or if a judge is convinced that you did, 
you will be punished. (You have the benefit of doubt, at least
in civilized countries, before it's clear that you have *committed* 
that deed at all, of course.)
Not so with patents. You can take a certain circuit, build a more or
less similar one, and if the owner of a patent feels that you
have violated his rights, a judge must decide if what you did
does infringe the other guys patent or not. Remember, there is
no doubt about *what* you did (built a certain circuit). The question
is how different is this circuit from the original one, how "original"
was the circuit of the patent holder, what claims does or doesn't
the original inventor hold ... a lot of questions for attorneys and 
judges to decide even when the *fact* (you built a certain circuit)
is very clear.
When the copy protection device of a software product is flakey,
and you manage to crack it, you may be a smart guy, but you still
have violated law. When the claims in your competitor's patents
are flakey, and you manage to show that your circuit is not covered
by the claims of the patent, or you're just a guy with smart attorneys,
you have *not* violated law.

We don't talk about "honesty" here - and we all know that this can
be quite different from just being "lawful", of course.

JH.