From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261868AbVAIW3g (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:29:36 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261869AbVAIW3f (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:29:35 -0500 Received: from gate.firmix.at ([80.109.18.208]:46763 "EHLO gate.firmix.at") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261868AbVAIW3b (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:29:31 -0500 Subject: Re: Open hardware wireless cards From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: Norbert van Nobelen Cc: Adrian Bunk , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <200501091059.04839.norbert-kernel@edusupport.nl> References: <20050105192447.GJ5159@ruslug.rutgers.edu> <20050105210929.GC10325@irc.pl> <20050108204759.GQ14108@stusta.de> <200501091059.04839.norbert-kernel@edusupport.nl> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: http://www.firmix.at/ Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:28:23 +0100 Message-Id: <1105309703.8365.25.camel@gimli.at.home> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, 2005-01-09 at 10:59 +0100, Norbert van Nobelen wrote: > On Saturday 08 January 2005 21:47, you wrote: > > On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 10:09:29PM +0100, Tomasz Torcz wrote: > > > On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 03:14:34PM -0500, Lennart Sorensen wrote: [...] > > > > Being open doesn't mean you aren't violating some stupid patent. > > > > > > Only in some countries. We can ignore those countries. Hardly. (Almost) all of the western world is included (and probably most of the rest). > > Patents on hardware are legal and common in _many_ countries including > > all countries in the EU. In general yes. > There are several independent designs in the market for these chipsets, but as > far as I know the patents only govern the complete chipset, thus the contents > of the chipset is not to be worried about. > The other patent issue is the 802.11 standard itself. Is that patent free? > (IE: That would be a stupid patent) You know how many "stupid" patents out there? An yes, they are granted and they (actually their holders) wait until they are legal. Bernd -- Firmix Software GmbH http://www.firmix.at/ mobil: +43 664 4416156 fax: +43 1 7890849-55 Embedded Linux Development and Services