It appears you have not yet registered with our community. To register please click here...

 
Go Back [M] > Madshrimps > WebNews
Sailfish to get 3rd party 'swipe' keyboard, despite patents Sailfish to get 3rd party 'swipe' keyboard, despite patents
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Sailfish to get 3rd party 'swipe' keyboard, despite patents
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 7th July 2014, 09:44   #1
[M] Reviewer
 
Stefan Mileschin's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Romania
Posts: 148,055
Stefan Mileschin Freshly Registered
Default Sailfish to get 3rd party 'swipe' keyboard, despite patents

A Sailfish developer (third party, so not affiliated with Jolla) has developed a swipe keyboard for Jolla. It's essentially done and ready to go, but he was too afraid to release it. The reason? I'd like to release this as an open source project, but at the moment I'm not comfortable with the patent issue (I'm interested in any advice on this topic). I live in a country outside the US (and without software patents), so should I just find a code hosting service with no relation with the US? Fellow Sailfish developers and users chimed in, arguing he should be fine with releasing it as open source and hosting it outside of the US, with a warning that it should not be used in the US. He has accepted this advice, and is currently working on releasing it. While this is great news for Sailfish users, this does highlight the destructive nature of software patents. Since he's going to release the code as open source, we can be 100% sure that none of the code in there is stolen from Swype and that none of it violates the open source license governing possible other swipe-like functionality (e.g. Google's Android keyboard). Ergo, he has developed this on his own, and has produced his own code, or used code that is freely available. It's a fruit of his labour, possibly infused with code that was meant to be used in a sharing manner. And yet, despite the above, it's very likely that yes, he is violating a bunch of patents by producing this keyboard, and is, potentially, running a risk. I'm not so sure the legal advice given in the thread holds up - I'm not a lawyer, and neither are (I'm assuming) the people in the thread - but I'm at least happy he is willing to run the risk for us. Now, I ask you: is this fair? Is this the future that we want for developers and programmers? Is this the message that the United States government, its technology companies, and said companies' public advocates want to send to aspiring hobby developers the world over? Should Europe, India, China, and the rest of the world just accept this? I'm sure the proponents of software patents will wave this away to solve their state of cognitive dissonance, but I'm honestly and seriously worried about the developers who have not released, are not releasing, or will not release their code because of the bribes changing hands from Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and the rest to Washington legislators. Patents are supposed to spur innovation, not hinder it.

http://osnews.com/story/27822/Sailfi...pite_p atents
Stefan Mileschin is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Kim Dotcom's party allies with a Maori party Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 28th May 2014 08:02
Mailbox's Auto-swipe archives and deletes on iOS so you don't have to Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 23rd April 2014 08:59
Sailfish updated yet again Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 1st January 2014 08:46
Sailfish gets its second update today Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 17th December 2013 12:30
Jolla CEO wants to bring Sailfish to Android mobiles Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 2nd December 2013 09:47
Google Now just a swipe away on HTC One with Android 4.2.2 update Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 9th July 2013 08:30
Snapchat 5.0 for iOS brings a swipe-based interface, in-app profiles Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 6th June 2013 12:07
Sailfish OS SDK released for Linux, Windows and Mac Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 8th April 2013 07:19
How Can I Disable Windows 8 Swipe Gestures On My Laptop? jmke WebNews 0 25th January 2013 08:24
Gmail 4.2.1 for Android adds easier resizing, swipe features and more Stefan Mileschin WebNews 0 4th December 2012 08:29

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 20:40.


Powered by vBulletin® - Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO