From help-request at octave dot org Wed Dec 28 09:55:52 2005 Subject: Re: SIFT image descriptor patch From: Andy Adler To: Stefan van der Walt cc: help at octave dot org Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 10:53:49 -0500 (EST) On Wed, 28 Dec 2005, Stefan van der Walt wrote: > Maybe someone who understands patent laws better can enlighten me, but > why woud anyone do further research on an algorithm that has been > patented? Plenty of reasons. Most importantly you may want to - test the algorithm to see how well it works - test other algorithms against it - use parameters calculated this way to do other research While there is a "tradition" of doing research on patented algorithms, but there is no general "research only" exception to infringement. Thus, it is _probably_ ok if you use their algorithm to test against your research results if - you don't gain financially from it - you don't vicariously contribute to someone elses infringement This is especially true since the author published his code on the internet. Of course, it is only _probably_ OK. NB: I'm not a lawyer. -- Andy Adler 1(613)562-5800x6218 ------------------------------------------------------------- Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL. Octave's home on the web: http://www.octave.org How to fund new projects: http://www.octave.org/funding.html Subscription information: http://www.octave.org/archive.html -------------------------------------------------------------