M. Fioretti wrote:
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.
...which is why it is vital that SCO v. IBM end with SCO and its
executives being assessed ruinous fines, and their lawyers being
disbarred, for barratry and abuse of process. This kind of rape of the
legal system must be forcibly stopped, not only for the sake of free
software, but for the very survival of Law itself.
--
John W. Kennedy
"The bright critics assembled in this volume will doubtless show, in
their sophisticated and ingenious new ways, that, just as /Pooh/ is
suffused with humanism, our humanism itself, at this late date, has
become full of /Pooh./"
-- Frederick Crews. "Postmodern Pooh", Preface
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