I'm only surprised it has taken MS this long to actually foist a law
suit. Patent litigation in itself is big business in the US but in the
case of MS there is probably a dual purpose, either profit from, or
attempt to end the creeping encroachment of Linux on their revenue. They
have been threatening for some time to do this IIRC.
Who was that person that either tried to patent, or was actually awarded
the patent on clickable links (i.e. http links)? I seem to recall that
one didn't last too long.
I also strongly suspect that MS with its quaint history for abuse of IP
won't find too much favor with people.
<minor political rant>
But then, they did discover the value of donating to political campaigns
in the US 2000 election cycle, contributing more (significantly so IIRC)
to the Republicans than to the Democrats. And the incoming Bush
administration DoJ did appear to wimp out significantly on MS in the end.
</rant>
There's software and there's business, MS are there to make a profit,
not to make friends per se. Perhaps MS could become the new SCO. Here's
hoping.
Cheers
L
Zane Gilmore wrote:
John Carter wrote:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/
More of the same M$ FUD, or are we heading for Patent Law Armageddon
Now....
And what should our response in NZ be?
I thought that was a very balanced and informative article.
Or, at least, as balanced as these things usually get.
It's so good I may use it to inform managers of FOSS.
I think that it captures the state of things quite well.
And as for what we should be doing here in NZ?
Keep an eye on any new IP legislation and talk to MPs about it.
Try to explain what is going on to reporters. Even though they often
seem to try to simplify things too far so the "masses can understand".
When all they do is dumb things down to the point where the described
issue becomes meaningless.
A case in point being that story on Close Up with that guy with the big mo.
He did a story on "Open Source" but it ended up being a story about
collaborative music and movie making.
my $0.02,
Zane
