> > > IIRC, it was Henry Ford who made the first car (Interestingly, I have
2
> > > Fords).
> > >
> >
> > Sorry but your wrong :(
> >
> > 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what is often recognized as the
prototype
> > of the modern gas engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline
> > injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887). Daimler first built a
> > two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen" (Riding Carriage) with this engine
and a
> > year later built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle.
> >
> > Henry started manufacturing 24 year after the first French car factory
> > opened.
>
> Would I have been right if I had added "in america"?
You probobly where but im not a car historian :)
>
> > Any way sometimes patents are good as they protect the small inventor
from
> > corporate theft.
>
> Unless that corporate is microsoft, then they just buy out the small guy.
=)
>
> > I don't really think exim is under threat of some kind, open source is
very
> > strong concept.
>
> You can think of Philip as the company and exim as the product. He
charges
> 0$ per copy. That doesn't seem to me any different than paying 100$ for a
> software package and getting everything (source included). Of course, the
> licence on the 100$ is different and doesn't let you distribute it back
out.
>
> Compare Exim to say communigate. Both tranport mail around (I know
> communigate is a full mail package with pop3 etc, but I'm using it here
just
> for comparison) Exim cost nothing, communigate cost something. In a way,
> exim competes with communigate. Lets say communigate patents (I doubt it
> would happen) the mail transport mechinism. What happens then?
Communigate
> (company) could see exim as a competitor.
>
It might but what can they do ?
1. prove that the code was there in the first place
2. they are the first to wrote it
3. the author took their code while knowing he doing wrong.
Even then what will they get ? reminds me SCO & Linux
SCO wants some money + publicity so they use Popular open-source to get it
with lame excuses :)