Wait for the apologists

Wait for the apologists

Posted Feb 26, 2009 14:13 UTC (Thu) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784)
Parent article: Microsoft sues TomTom

Microsoft says open-source software is not the intended focal point of the action.

Wait for the apologists such as De Icaza to tell us to concentrate on the calming, stroking motions of the left hand (see above) while the right hand continues with its nasty, aggressive acts against not only open source (and Free Software) but also against the very basis of software development as a profession.

Observe the paid-up representatives of the legal profession and their idiot helpers excuse patent litigation as a way to "protect IP" without conceding that no-one should be able to patent ideas, business models, algorithms, mathematics and nature. Observe the way the legal profession seeks to profit from other professions by effectively ruining those professions for their practitioners.

When SCO initiated their extortion strategy, various projects decided to stop supporting SCO's products in protest. Isn't it time we did the same for Microsoft?

It wouldn't just be software developers who could play a role, either. Now that a campaign is underway to persuade people to drop Internet Explorer 6 (supported by Microsoft, no less), why not add to the message about people upgrading their browser and state that the developers of IE6 advocate unethical business practices and extortion through patent litigation? At least the "consumer" would be better informed as a result.

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