[geeks] Doorbells

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Jonathan C. Patschke" <jp at celestrion.net>
>Date: 2008/03/21 Fri PM 02:21:17 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Doorbells

>On Fri, 21 Mar 2008, der Mouse wrote:
>
>> I believe that last paragraph is false, that it is actually a
>> violation to practice the invention even privately.)
>
>To the best of my knowledge, that is actually the case in the US, but,
>it's a law I cannot keep on good conscience.  I do not give the
>government my consent to regulate what I build and create for my own
>purposes (provided I'm not harming others with those creations).
>
>I have to wonder if there's some sort of "fair use" sort of exemption
>for education, though.  One of my assignments my first or second year of
>college was to implement an LZW codec, and the patent on LZW was still
>valid back then.

More likley an instructor that is ignorant of the law. I don't see how an instructor can (essentially) wave a valid patent in the classroom and ask students to violate it without impunity.

I don't think the law is on the teacher's side, I think personal/private use is all but impossible to detect, and while your instructor may never get caught, that doesn't make it right.

If the instructor asked you to implement a compression algorithm and you "invented" LZW out of ignorance of the existng patent, you would be fine (IMHO, IANAL, etc.) - ignorance is a valid defense (AFAIK, I think it is in US Tax law, anyway, since even the IRS can't give consistent advice ;^).

Lionel