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Are you sure you want to see the list?

Posted Aug 2, 2004 21:14 UTC (Mon) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767)
In reply to: Are you sure you want to see the list? by BrucePerens
Parent article: Linux Scare Tactics (Forbes)

I agree that we need the infrastructure in place ahead of time. However, the fact is, for whatever reason, Linux has not yet been the target of patent suits. They may be on the way, but where are they? Linux is already stepping on a lot of proprietary toes and we are not seeing the rash of suits that people have been predicting since the mid 1990's.

My point is, why are we starting off the scare mongering ourselves? Why are we adding (what is it? $150,000?) to the cost of using Linux in the absence of a real and present problem. The only reason I can see is that it's good for OSRM's bottom line. I've not seen anything indicating a nonprofit status for OSRM.

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Posted Aug 3, 2004 5:10 UTC (Tue) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] (1 responses)

Well, all of the conditions are in place for someone to start the lawsuits with a bang. A big bang. If MS were to do it, I'm sure they would pattern it after the RIAA and file 500 at once.

It may be that they continue to wait until the software patenting situation in Europe firms up. But if some little twerps like SCO could do what they did, I'm not going to sit around and think that the patent lawsuits might never come.

Bruce

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Posted Aug 3, 2004 13:53 UTC (Tue) by pdsdst (subscriber, #19395) [Link]

They must wait or else the negative impact of the EPO version of the patent directive on the European economy will become all too clear for the politicans. Currently most of them think software patents are good because the US seems to be doing just fine (remember, they are not programmers and much closer to lawyers in their thinking).

One thing to remember about European politicians though is that if they implement a stupid directive that later turns out to threaten EU jobs (directly or indirectly) they do have the resolv to change it. At least if it is a US company that is the threat.

Daniel