Re: Patents and AX.25

[samst@bdol10.indepth.com (Steve Sampson)]

> Does the Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression used in NOS compressed SMTP service
> infringe upon this patent?

In the military we call this a "question you don't want the answer to."

1.	Patents have three purposes - one is to protect an idea, the other is
	trading cards, and the final is ego.

2.	The Government will let you patent anything, and then let each of the
	competing patents sue each other till they're out of money.

The simple answer is yes.  If it's patented then you need to get permission
and pay royalties.  If the owner won't give you permission, then sell it as
a kit (Radio and Electronics does it this way with patented electronic
circuits).  If you want to go into business selling other peoples ideas,
then the best bet is to get a contract - or get a patent for the same idea
and sue the original patent :-)

> AX.25 in the Linux kernel...

I'd rather see a PPP or CSLIP ROM in a TNC and not waste my CPU on that.
The best bet is to go high speed and throw out AX.25.  Most Hams are Nazi's
anyway - they don't allow third party mail to flow unmolested.  As mentioned,
third party freedom is the only thing going for AX.25 - otherwise it's
worthless.

On a side subject: the FCC has really warped the rules.  They define two
types of modulation - voice and data.  If you digitize voice then it doesn't
become data - it becomes digital voice.  The reason I mention this is 
because I wanted to send digital voice as digital data via AX.25 for third
party rules in a petition.  The FCC replied that I couldn't, and that they
suggest I use 900 MHz or above and an unspecified code (non-AX.25).  Which
has caused me to forget about AX.25 for any future base of a digital voice
protocol.

--
n5owk