[Mono-list] Mono and Patents

[ted leslie]

There is no right answer to this until it is tested in court. Much like 
SCO/IBM/Linux issue.
I am getting into mono now because I know that worst case scenerio (just 
like with SCO on Linux),
if MS squashed Mono, it would be redeveloped, probably quickly, i.e. 
within months,
and then MS would face a competitive product, which ultimate is better 
(and free),
that will dry up the market they will have for their .Net products.
Thats the nice thing about GPL and free software with many supporters,
(mix that with countries that realize MS is an illegal monopoly),
is that its software can never die, or be pushed out of existence by any
flunky US court cases (thats assuming there is negative results on GPL 
based cases).

To be a safe user of Mono, (much like a safe user of Linux),
you'd have to get it from a vendor that will endemnify it, and maybe
some day soon, who knows, that could happen.
Dell, IBM, HP, etc are already endemnifying against actions on Linux,
to protect their end users.
I wonder, is Mono part of a Redhat that HP (for example) endemnies against?
or do they preclude this?

-tl