On Aug 9, 2011, at 4:13 PM, Reinier Zwitserloot wrote: > On Tuesday, August 9, 2011 4:03:01 PM UTC+2, kirk wrote: >> >> This is just a hunch, but, perhaps FOSS projects are more popular than >> normal because of the patent system. It's much more difficult to sue the >> _creator_ of a FOSS project for patent infringement; some bigcorp might join >> in, and the last thing a troll wants is to be challenged in court as that >> might render their patent permanently unenforceable. There's virtually no >> money to be had. It's even worse for PR than usual, etc, etc. As a creator >> of a project, the reduction in risk when you FOSS your library vs. charging >> a moderate price for it is possibly convincing some programmers to go the >> FOSS route vs. trying to sell it if patent risk wasn't a concern. > > these guys do not care about PR. Trolling is a source of funding. troll Omni > will require for 50,000,000,000 in patent fees to satisfy their funders > demands for ROI. > > Of course they care about PR. You've got to be kidding.. these are shell companies hiding in other shells eventually leading out to trusts located who knows where. People skilled at unraveling ownership have trouble untangling these entities. Who is there to care about what publicity? Bad or good!
> Enough public badmouthing of a specific case and people show up funding the > defendant, prior art is searched for by more people, a lawyer might offer > their services pro bono. A big company might take the opportunity to earn > some geek cred and take up defense. Sure, they wouldn't give a flying one if > their name is spoken with derision around the tech sphere, but there are > other costs to being a well known jackass. Quiet, fast settlement. That's > perfection for a patent troll. Anything else is suboptimal for them. Well, I don't see anything but the later happening in most cases. > > > None of this invalidates my point. It's _much_ easier to just abandon the IP > if you have no support contracts and not even implied merchantability because > your library was a FOSS project and you never sold anybody anything. Well you don't really abandon, the troll gets it. Regards, Kirk -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
