From research!ehg Tue Aug 4 15:13:38 1987 Received: by anl-mcs.ARPA (4.12/4.9) id AA25057; Tue, 4 Aug 87 14:58:05 cdt Date: Tue, 4 Aug 87 14:58:05 cdt From: research!ehg Message-Id: <8708041958.AA25057@anl-mcs.ARPA> Apparently-To: dongarra Status: RO Just to keep you posted... ===== hartley.legal ===== From-: research!ehg (Eric Grosse, 201-582-5828) To-: na.buneman Subject: FHT legalities I noticed in last month's Stanford Observer that Bracewell patented the Fast Hartley Transform and the Trustees of Stanford are licensing it. What does this imply about netlib's (free) distribution of your code? Should I withdraw it? ------ >From research!csnet!sierra.stanford.edu!BUNEMAN Thu 30 Jul 87 20:56:07-PDT From: Oscar Buneman Received: from relay.cs.net by RELAY.CS.NET id aj16453; 30 Jul 87 23:59 EDT Received: from sierra.stanford.edu by RELAY.CS.NET id aa03656; 31 Jul 87 0:01 EDT Subject: FHT legalities To: ehg%research.att.com@csnet-relay cc: bracewell@star.stanford.edu Message-ID: <12322645992.13.BUNEMAN@Sierra.Stanford.EDU> Via: Csnet-Relay; 31 Jul 87 2:21-EDT Eric Grosse: Our reaction to Ron Bracewell's success over patenting an algorithm (not a machine) has been generally favorable. We do not think that it means the algorithm can only be sold (not freely distributed). I see no difference between patenting and copyrighting an idea. Both simply mean acknowledging authorship. I am sure Ron Bracewell would be the first to raise objections if you withdrew my FAST HARTLEY TRANSFORM from netlib distribution. I wonder how many algorithms there are in NETLIB which have been published under some copyright somewhere or other! Is the law going to come after us because we are freely copying such material into and out of NETLIB? Notice, by the way, that patents and copyrights provide financial benefits, if any, to the author's institution and very rarly or minimally to the author himself! In our case, the encouragement to try and patent the algorithm, and the initiative, came from the university. I must admit that sooner or later there will be some serious trouble over patenting or copyrighting software - but in the meantime all original authors will be the happier the more their ideas are copied and used - with only the acknowledgment of their authorship. Oscar Buneman ------- >From research!csnet!star1.stanford.edu!BRACEWELL Mon 3 Aug 87 15:33:44-PDT From: "Ronald N. Bracewell" Received: from relay.cs.net by RELAY.CS.NET id ad07995; 3 Aug 87 18:41 EDT Received: from star1.stanford.edu by RELAY.CS.NET id aa04670; 3 Aug 87 18:40 EDT Subject: Hartley Legalities To: ehg%research.att.com@csnet-relay Message-ID: <555028424.0.BRACEWELL@STAR1.STANFORD.EDU> Mail-System-Version: Via: Csnet-Relay; 3 Aug 87 22:16-EDT The Hartley algorithm has been published by the IEEE Proceedings and by Oxford University Press, with copyright statements attached. If you are concerned, telephone Lisa Kuuttila (pron. KOO-tila) of Stanford Office of Technology Licensing at (415) 723-0651. R.N. BRACEWELL ------- 13:30 4 Aug 1987 ehg Phoned Kuuttila; she was in a meeting and will call me back. 15:47 Kuuttila says that Stanford retains the copyright and patent and that a license agreement is probably needed for netlib. But if Prof. Bracewell wants his code distributed that way, she'll find a way to make it legal. She says that she will contact Bracewell and then get back to me. .