The Blackboard Patent: Where's Waldo?

Posted Sep 1, 2006 4:55 UTC (Fri) by roelofs (subscriber, #2599) [Link]

Technically, I think PJ "merely" pointed out the money connection (perhaps a tad gleefully). And yes, maybe sometimes she's a little over the top when it comes to conspiracy theories in general and Microsoft in particular.

But the point is, we don't know for sure, one way or the other, and the facts are certainly suggestive. More to your point, she didn't say Microsoft prompted Blackboard to file the patent; instead, the (fairly obvious, I thought) implication was that they instigated/encouraged the lawsuit and are still in the process of bankrolling it. (Patent suits are, after all, hideously expensive; there was an article in the paper just today about somebody's loss widening significantly since last year, primarily due to patent-litigation costs.)

Whether Blackboard might move from commercial attacks to open-source is anybody's guess, but (1) it's certainly a good cover if that's the plan--i.e., let a third party do the dirty work, quite reasonably starting at the top moneywise and working their way on down, perhaps getting around to open-source targets in 3-4 years; and (2) remember Unisys? They also backpedaled on a verbal promise w.r.t. freeware.

In short, even without exerting any overt or covert pressure to target open-source software--which, after all, would be rather risky from the antitrust perspective, Bush administration or no--one could plausibly argue that Microsoft is simply rolling the dice and hoping for the best. Sure, it's a long shot, but they've got cash to burn and the potential payoff is pretty decent, so...why not?

That said, I remain fairly skeptical...but it's hard to dismiss the idea completely.

Greg