Fascinating article on microsoft, linux, and software patents

Rangers

Legend
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=8901
But while Microsoft is using familiar tactics to put the fear into Linux users, Shuttleworth argued open source and Microsoft are ultimately on the same side of the software patent issue.

"I’m pretty certain that, within a few years, Microsoft themselves will be strong advocates against software patents," Shuttleworth wrote. "Microsoft is irrevocably committed to shipping new software every year, and software patents represent landmines in their roadmap which they are going to step on, like it or not, with increasing regularity."

He said the most dangerous litigants are companies not themselves in the software business, small ventures or holding companies that get their principal revenue from patent licensing.

He singled out former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold and his company Intellectual Ventures, which is stockpiling patents at a rate that alarms large companies such as IBM and HP, as an example of such a potentially dangerous company.
 
"Stockpiling patents", what an awful expression.

"Hey honey, while you're at the mall bring me a pound of patents, will you?" :smile:
 
This thread reminds me once again that we need a more open forum for "technology related political/socio-economic implication threads". These shouldn't have to be in RPSC on a tech site.
 
I hate how the patent process stifles innovation now instead of fostering it. Completely the opposite of its intended purpose.
 
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