License, patent is confusing at best. It is speculative what the outcome would be for the recent patent threat move from Microsoft against linux and open source in general. It seems more like a tactical FUD (rather than strategic) move to slow down the adoption of the linux (in both desktop and server space) and open source so as to possibly boost the sales of Windows Vista and Windows 2008. It is not meant to rage full-fledged war. It's like stimulating and managing the demand for the short term, or "in the long run, we are all dead", or do we?
The Patent Puzzle
"Patent fights are fights about money. The secondary issue, the one that makes the headlines, is control."
"The 1950s fight over FM radio between its inventor, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and RCA and the even earlier battles over DC vs. AC electrical power, and their famous champions, Thomas Edison vs. Nikola Tesla, also demonstrate how patent battles have far more to do with money and control than they do with the technical virtues of the patents themselves."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2138111,00.asp
Posted
Jun 06 2007, 10:12 AM
by
blackinkbottle