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by kemitchell 1939 days ago
Patents?
2 comments

I'm part of 5G research and you would find my name on some 5G patents (and on 4G and 3G ... which means i do this now for long time).

Actually depending on the local law (EU here) usage is usage.

Most patent holders (i.e. the mobile communication industry, think Qualcomm, Ericssion, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Operators etc.) don't enforce patents on non-commercial activities. If you make money with standards that have patents applied there are licensing schemes.

Humble doubt: Are they applicable on non-commercial and open source uses too? Can patents prevent that?
It really depends on your legislation, and also how much you allow yourself to be governed by unjust legislation. For example people like Rhizomatica are building internet / cellphone infrastructure on a free-software stack without (to my knowledge) caring at all about patents (good).

On the other side of the world Freifunk community network in Germany has in i believe illegal activities to protect their users, and have fought up to the supreme court for that. Sorry i can't really provide a source as i don't speak german but it has something to do with secondary liability.

So overall, please never let anyone dictate all the good you should do. Especially not lawmakers and lawyers.

That's probably it. However i'm not from germany and don't speak german so please don't take my word for it.