05.14.07
Selected Quotes: Why Software Patents Must Not Exist
“Well, every large program infringes lots of patents.
Microsoft has lots of patents. Most large programs, I would expect, infringe
some Microsoft patents. This just goes to show why software patents
shouldn’t exist.”
— Richard Stallman, in a very recent interview
“The number [of patents] we found, to anyone familiar with this issue, is so average as to be boring; almost any piece of software potentially infringes at least that many patents. The point of the study was actually to eliminate the FUD about Linux’s alleged legal problems by attaching a quantifiable measure versus the speculation.”
—Dan Ravicher, an attorney and
executive director of PUBPAT (the Public
Patent Foundation), in a this new article
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
gpl1 said,
May 14, 2007 at 11:52 pm
how about Bill Gates on software patents
“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete stand-still today. The solution … is patent exchanges … and patenting as much as we can… . A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.” Fred Warshofsky, The Patent Wars 170-71 (NY: Wiley 1994).
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 15, 2007 at 12:12 am
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,—-[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| […]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| […]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`—-
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
Also notice the absence of small businesses in the following item:
Commerce Secretary names Schramm to innovation panel
,—-[ Quote ]
| He will be part of a lineup that includes the Microsoft Corp. CEO
| Steve Ballmer, 3M CEO George Buckley, UPS Chairman and CEO Michael Eskew,
| IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano and Wal-Mart Stores Vice Chairman John
| Menzer.
`—-
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/061206/1386414.html?.v=2
Bill Murry said,
August 5, 2007 at 1:13 pm
What are these guys at gianiji.com… jeez they are something. I took some advice from them… cool!