Who Needs to Learn Respect?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| dcparris Feb 20, 2007 4:12 PM EDT |
It is the proprietary vendors who infringe on copyrighted Free Software by incorporating that software into their code, not the other way around. As for patents, if you listed your patents, FOSS developers would be able to easily avoid infringing on your patents. But you don't. So who needs to learn to respect whom? |
| cr Feb 20, 2007 4:43 PM EDT |
> As for patents, if you listed your patents, FOSS developers would be able to easily avoid infringing on your patents Why wait? Go through the USPTO listings, grab all the Microsoft patents, post them prominently, and begin pulling together prior art on each one, to have it revoked, as a community effort. Make it a sister site with the one that holds the dirty-tricks stuff from the latest antitrust suit, and host it all well off US soil, someplace that'll shrug off DMCA takedown notices. (I do really expect to see DMCA takedown attempts on the Iowa stuff if it's Internet-hosted in the US -- has the Wayback Machine been purged yet? The Groklaw crowd has it all snagged.) This is something the developers mustn't do (because of the treble penalty for knowing violations) but it's something the rest of the community can do. Any patents where prior art doesn't seem to be accruing can then be pointed out to developers who seem likely to stumble into danger from them; at that point they'll want to think up workarounds. |
| moopst Feb 20, 2007 4:54 PM EDT |
I have no respect for Microsoft's IP. I think it's all crap and I do not want it anywhere in my house. I do however have respect for the law. I'd like to see the criminals at Microsoft try that for once. |
| dcparris Feb 20, 2007 5:05 PM EDT |
Actually, I'd really like to see Microsoft prove that it has any intellect, let alone that can be called property. :-D |
| jimf Feb 20, 2007 5:24 PM EDT |
It all comes back to the validity, or lack of it, pertaining to the existence of 'any' software patent. Until the court decide to dismiss this travesty, MS, and all the other Corporate wonders, will continue to shake their clubs and stomp around the fire. |
| dcparris Feb 20, 2007 5:26 PM EDT |
Oh great, more images of cavemen, as if Geiko hasn't done enough to warp my mind. |
| cr Feb 20, 2007 6:22 PM EDT |
> Oh great, more images of cavemen, as if Geiko hasn't done enough to warp my mind. Think about a Tyrannosaurus Rex being eaten alive by army ants, feet first, then. That's how I prefer to visualize Microsoft-versus-FOSS. |
| dcparris Feb 20, 2007 6:49 PM EDT |
cr: I do like your idea. I just don't have the time or wherewithal to undertake starting a project like that. |
| qcimushroom Feb 20, 2007 7:06 PM EDT |
Let him talk, his own words could lead Microsoft to defeat. If a patent holder is aware of a violation of his patent rights and doesn't do anything about, after awhile he loses the right to do anything. |
| dcparris Feb 20, 2007 7:32 PM EDT |
I thought that only held with trademarks. iirc, others around here have stated that your notion is false. |
| bigg Feb 20, 2007 7:38 PM EDT |
I have read that if you wait for a market to grow before enforcing your patents, you lose the right to enforce the patent. In other words, you can't sit by the sidelines as another company is advertising a product built on your patent, and after the market is big enough (based on the infringing company's efforts) claim your patent rights. Whether it is true or applies in this case I don't know. |
| tuxchick Feb 20, 2007 9:04 PM EDT |
It's bluster. All he can do is bully companies into paying yet more Microsoft taxes. Don't forget what Jeremy Allison said: ""I have had people come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free software that they were using, which they then cannot redistribute." http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=265 |
| henke54 Feb 21, 2007 5:37 AM EDT |
i like this quote from darkhatter :
Quoting:This is going to be hard for fan girls/boys to understand so I'll try and explain:http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=366652 ;-P |
| swbrown Feb 21, 2007 2:19 PM EDT |
> if you listed your patents, FOSS developers would be able to easily avoid infringing on your patents. That's not really true. There are so many patents on insanely trivial and obvious things (e.g., Y2K windowing), and even on things someone else invented (e.g., BlueJ), that just writing "Hello, world!" surely violates dozens. |
| cr Feb 21, 2007 3:34 PM EDT |
> cr: I do like your idea. I just don't have the time or wherewithal to undertake starting a project like that. Neither do I. I put the idea out there so that someone who does might come along, see it, and think, "Yeah, I can do that... That'll be *my* contribution." It's all about Stone Soup vs Kool-Aid. |
| jdixon Feb 21, 2007 3:59 PM EDT |
> There are so many patents on insanely trivial and obvious things... Didn't (perhaps doesn't) IBM hold the patent on double xor'ing? |
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