Re: IDEA block cipher inclusion via the "bouncy castle" JCE provider

[robert burrell donkin <rd...@apache.org>]

On Wed, 2005-08-31 at 21:46 +0200, Jochen Wiedmann wrote:
> robert burrell donkin wrote:
> 
> > or would every open source project be expected to check every patent in
> > every state in the world?
> 
> Ignoring a patent knowingly is surely not the same thing than violating 
> it without knowledge of doing so. Both in the legal sense and for this 
> discussions sake.

unlike copyright, patent law varies substantially from country to
country. whether mathematics should be patentable is a controversial
subject and i have some sympathy for those people who live in countries
with different cultural philosophies on this issue who refuse to abide
by laws framed in countries which have made different ethical choices.
the patent is (for them) invalid and therefore it is not unreasonable to
ignore it. 

(this isn't the policy that i'd like to see adopted at apache, just
interested in the logical consequences of a radical definition of open
source as patent unencumbered worldwide...)

i suspect that apache would choose to ignore any patents which were not
enforceable under US law.

- robert