On Sat, May 19, 2007 18:07:38 PM +0100, CPHennessy ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> On Saturday 19 May 2007, David Bird wrote: > > I'm referring to the so-called patent infringement. I, personally > > am not worried. But I'm sure that there are plenty of big > > businesses that are, especially if there is any validity at all to > > the claims. I'm well aware of M$ FUD tactics and I'm sure that > > this is more of the same, but even so... it's a tad worrying :( > > Not at all. If MS do sue, then they will have to explain what the > patents are, at which point it is quite probable that others have > prior art therefore making these patents invalid, or will counter > sue MS where they have their own patents which MSOffice is using. Unfortunately, the situation isn't so simple. The argument above is as much right as irrelevant in the *real* world, outside the niche of software enthusiasts. Microsoft doesn't have nor want to sue: they just need to create the background and wait for the right actions from third parties, like the one described in the "Summary of the Previous Season" part of this: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9594#mpart7 and they're done without any need to sue, while most of the FOSS community still wastes time telling to itself how ridiculous it is to think that there are patents violations in Linux, OpenOffice or anywhere else. Marco -- Help *everybody* love Free Standards and Free Software http://digifreedom.net/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
