[Ubuntu-PH] Microsoft's Patent against FOSS

[hard wyrd]

Ball of hot air.

According to Brad Smith, they _will_ not sue. Because if they _do_, we will
have a patent war up ahead.

In the Philippines, I dunno up to what extent this recent MS adventurism
(yet again) regarding its so called patent portfolios is affecting our local
end users, most specifically companies.

IMOO, they wont be much of an effect here simply because most of the
companies using various Linux flavors are also licensed Windows users.

This _patent war_ will most probably be felt between patent heavies trying
to shift their weights around with their software patents, something that
Eben Moglen specifically abhors. John Soat, tech columnist of various IT
publications, also categorically predicted that should the patent
moshpitting happen uncontrollably, various aspects of our industries might
be affected.

MS will be unable to go after Novell (even if they did not enter into a
partnership), or IBM, or other companies. Why? MS itself is a violator of
software patents. And Novell itself holds key patents that may bring down MS
in one stroke. IBM can even finish it up with some 40,000+ patents of its
own.

The thing about software patents is that it is only applicable in the US,
and most of the software patents are so broad and only declare generalities
in how to do something, and not very specific. Eben Moglen even went on to
say that software is built out of algorithms and numbers. In the US, one
cannot patent numbers. In essence, according to Eben Moglen's argument,
software is just a bunch of numbers. And learning how to write software is a
lot more like learning Math. And nobody has patented how to do something in
Math (eg. algebra, calculus, etc...). This must also apply to software.

On 5/17/07, Allan Echavia Registos <allan.registos at smpc.steniel.com.ph>
wrote:
>
>  Hi guys,
>
> Good day...
>
> I'm a newbie in this list. Let me introduce myself, I am Allan Registos,
> working as a graphic designer here in Davao City.
> With the recent Microsoft's patent threat against Linux and FOSS, how does
> it affect to us here in the Philippines and Asia? Any ideas?
>
> :)
> Regards...
> allan
>
> --
> "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
>   - Martin Luther King Jr.
>
> Machine:
> Dual-boot Windows & Ubuntu
> P4 HT 2.8Ghz
> 1.2Gb RAM
> 128MB Nvidia Video
>
>
>
-- 
"A dog that has no bite, barks loudest."
Registered Linux User #400165
http://baudizm.blogsome.com
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