[OT] Open Source, EULA - the Big Bad Bogeyman

[Lynn Fredricks]

> Reminds me of the Compton Multimedia Patent case, in which 
> they claimed ownership rights to the ability of any CD-ROM to 
> contain more than one type of media (text, audio, video, 
> raster graphics, vector graphics, etc.).
> 
> The USPTO rubber-stamped that one and it took a bit of a 
> battle to pull together the thousands of examples of prior 
> art to nullify that patent. 
>   It was eventually reversed, but sadly our system does not 
> compensate for the loss of time in fighting stupidly-awarded patents.

It is an ongoing stimulus package for the legal profession.

There have been many times Ive been asked about new products during the dot
com (and even now moreso in Web 2.5) eras wherein the developers are happy
to knowingly file even when its clear they were too late or aware of
significant prior art that would invalidate it if only anyone knew about it.
The attitude seems to be "why not, if it passes by, we can bully others out
of our market until we achieve market success".

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com

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