Mark Post said: > John McKown remarked: >> Microsoft has dropped the other shoe. It claims that Linux >> infringes on 235 of its patents and it wants payment: > > If they keep this up, a bunch of people are going to start looking > at all their software patents, and trying to get a ton of them > invalidated. Particularly in light of recent Supreme Court > decisions. If a Democratic president is elected in 2008, there > could well be more DOJ anti-trust action as well. All in all, > probably not a good course for MS to be taking right now.
Some things that come to mind that people forget-- how many patents is Microsoft in violation of? Especially ones within the OIN? Again, the advantage M$ has had is that they can peruse all of the code looking for patent violations... who is keeping an eye on the code within their own software to make sure they don't step into a bear trap, hmmmmm??? What happens if a patent-holder wants to audit their code to ensure they aren't in violation of it? What rights does a patent-holder have for discovery when dealing with closed source? [humor mode="Stand Up Philosophy"] While I have a level of distrust for the current incarnation of the DOJ, I'm wondering if there's any victory to be had? I can almost see Linux work all being pushed off-shore so that server farms running it will be in, say, China, but, at the same time, I would suspect that Microsoft may win a Pyrrhic victory (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory ). Unlike a corporation-- any corporation-- FOSS has no financial choke-points. It's like a hydrogen plasma in a magnetic field-- like nailing jell-o to a tree. (laughs) Maybe FOSS is more like the Lernaean Hydra... ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra ) [/humor] (laughs some more) I may be on my way out of IBM but I've still got my sense of humor! [humor src="Firesign Theater"] Microsoft exposes their patents: Catherwood: "Show me the negatives!" Rocky Rococco: "Of course, here they are..." (Catherwood gloats over being free of blackmail) Nancy: "Dan! Dan! This isn't us! It's an interesting approach, but it isn't us!" [/humor] -------------------- John R. Campbell, Speaker to Machines (GNUrd), Stand-Up Philosopher Phone: (813) 356-5322 (t/l 697) Adsumo ergo raptus sum MacOS X: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows. Red Hat Certified Engineer (#803004680310286) IBM Certified: IBM AIX 4.3 System Administration, System Support ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
