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Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet)
Here's a ZDNet blog entry by David Berlind on software patents and free software. "After losing to Eolas, Microsoft, was forced to remove important plug-in functionality from Internet Explorer. Firefox, on the other hand was not. Eolas has turned out to be an open source benefactor, allowing open source developers access to its intellectual property. In other words, in an extremely unusual twist of fate, a patent worked against commercial software and in favor of open source software to the point that the open source software had a distinct usability advantage over commercial alternatives."
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Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 30, 2006 20:30 UTC (Tue) by ajax (guest, #7251) [Link] Not at all desirable: what Eloas grants today, they can take away tomorrow.
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 30, 2006 21:55 UTC (Tue) by cventers (subscriber, #31465) [Link] Microsoft may be the big guy in the crosshairs, but I don't exactly seeEolas giving grants or official statements that they wouldn't attempt to enforce the same crap on open source browsers.
In particular, the interview in which Eolas suggests open source guys
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 30, 2006 23:07 UTC (Tue) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Open Source guys have nothing to worry about Eolas becuase Open Source guys offer nothing of interest to them.
Their interest was purely money. 100% completely about milking a large corporation for millions of dollars simply because they can.
Modern large Universities like U of California (aka "Eolas") see patents as a way to get money to help fund themselves. There is no principals or concepts beyond them simply helping themselves to money at the expense of a unpopular corporation.
If it was the other way around; Redhat making the billions and Microsoft making the millions, Eolas would of gone after them for shipping patented software instead as sure as the sky is blue. It doesn't have anything to do with open source software.
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 7:47 UTC (Wed) by pointwood (guest, #2814) [Link] AFAIK, Mozilla is earning quite a bit of money...
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 8:42 UTC (Wed) by HenrikH (guest, #31152) [Link] Yes, but something tells me that it isn't in the range of billions ;-)
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 9:03 UTC (Wed) by pointwood (guest, #2814) [Link] True, but it's more than a few pennies ;)
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 18:35 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] No, it is a few pennies, by Microsoft standards.Microsoft's 2005 revenue, according to Google Finance, was 39.79 billion dollars, with a net profit margin of 31.59%. That's more than 10 billion dollars of profit. The Mozilla Corporation folks would drown themselves in champagne if they achieved one ten-thousandth of that.
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted Jun 6, 2006 22:24 UTC (Tue) by gerv (subscriber, #3376) [Link] Assuming that's a US billion (a thousand million), then one ten-thousandth of $10 billion is $1 million. Do you think the Mozilla Foundation has made more than that?
Pop those corks! :-)
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted Jun 8, 2006 11:11 UTC (Thu) by alext (guest, #7589) [Link] Accountants don't think that way. As soon as the amount is big enough to make the cost of harvesting small compared to the harvest they will want it.
If they are smart perhaps they know that Mozilla will just remove and rework for those things if there is an encumerance assert.
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 14:07 UTC (Wed) by foo (guest, #1117) [Link] > Microsoft may be the big guy in the crosshairs, but I don't exactly see> Eolas giving grants or official statements that they wouldn't attempt to > enforce the same crap on open source browsers.
One angle to consider is that it *helps* the patent troll to
Patent troll -- nothing in our favour. Posted May 31, 2006 5:01 UTC (Wed) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] Eolas is a patent troll. It might be vicariously pleasant to seeMicrosoft sting, but such behaviour has the potential to hurt free software much more than it hurts the big monopolist. After all, a large technology company might settle for big bucks and carry on using the patented technology, but small developers are subject to 'prior restraint'.
Patent troll -- nothing in our favour. Posted May 31, 2006 6:43 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] "Vicariously I live while the whole world dies. Much better you than I!"
Whooooops, damaged by too much Tool, sorry! ;)
Look for the logical flaws in the following text Posted May 31, 2006 6:38 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] "Look mum, we got lucky! The thieves stole at the rich neighbours', but not here! Let's hope a few more come to the neighbourhood and keep stealing from the rich guys, so social differences disappear. After all we are so poor they will not bother."
Could more Eolas-like open source benefactors hurt Microsoft, others? (ZDNet) Posted May 31, 2006 7:09 UTC (Wed) by petegn (guest, #847) [Link] You people want something to worry about look at what Novello is doing to SuSe (there must be an M$ Corp link in there somewhere)..
Pete .
look at what Novello is doing to SuSE Posted Jun 1, 2006 1:36 UTC (Thu) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] You're absolutely right. I mean look what they did to the Bach B-Minor mass. SuSE would have been so much better off sticking with Urtext.
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