[plug] Open source "warning"

[Bernd Felsche]

Kai Jones <kai.jones at broome.wa.gov.au> writes:

>Anyone read this ?

>Open source warning
>http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,12329168%5E15319%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

>Unless I've been reading the wrong info from other places, it looks 
>fairly contradictory on Microsoft's part, eg "Last year Microsoft 
>extended to non-volume licences its program to protect software users 
>against patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark claims"...that 
>must be Microsoft's partners who they're protecting against patent 
>claims, definately not FOSS though !

I wouldn't trust that article. Too much FUD.

"Microsoft's decision came amid growing anxiety over the impact of
SCO's $US1.26 billion lawsuit against IBM over Linux, which is
currently before US courts."

Should say "lawsuit against IBM over Unix recently thrown out of US
courts". The case wasn't about _Linux_.

Who's "IDC" to tell "open source vendors they needed to match
Microsoft's customer intellectual property indemnity measures."?

Australian Governments can avoid feeding the over-insurance frenzy
by preventing stupid "intellectual" property rights existing in the
first place.

Examination of Patents for *novelty* and not being obvious to
somebody SKILLED in the art has a heritage in Australia. The USPTO's
prevalence for allowing anything that hasn't been previously
patented, to be patented is simply ridiculous and as we can observe
from an uncomfortable proximity (now that FTA is taking effect), is
counter-productive to innovation.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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