Comments on: Stallman: OSDL patent project 'worse than nothing'

Project to fight low-quality patents could make legal terrain tougher for open source, FSF founder says.

[asdf]

Software patents will destroy your earning potential

Coming soon: don't even THINK about writing software for a living or, even worse, bringing a new product to market, unless you are an employee of a very very large corporation.

Microsoft,( who has a patnet on conjugating verbs) Adobe (who *owns* the concept of using tabbed panes in the UI) et. al. will slap you with a infringement lawsuit that you can't even think about being able to afford to answer (avg. patent litigation now well over a million dollars). This is using the mere fact that software patents are permitted as a weapon against smaller, more innovative companies, nevermind any particular patent.

Meanwhile, don't think that you can stop them from using YOUR patented invention. After the RIM/Balckberry fiasco (bad patent meet bad-patent infringer) Congress has recently decided that small IP compnaies who attempt to assert their right to stop infringers through forcing them to stop selling the infringing product are, well, out of luck; they have a special name for small IP companies- they're called patent trolls. Oh, and the courts will decide just how important, and therefore how much money you get, the infringing component was to the overall infringer's product. If it was a small thing, then, if you can endure the 7-10 years of legal bills (avg. patent attorney fee $500.00 an hour) they can drag out your case for. Remember, MS is printing money- they can use your fiesty case to teach other IP rights claimants a nasty lesson and they'll never even feel it.

So the end real, effective result is- you're down by law- you can't write software and you can't enforce your own rights. That is the actual world you'll live in. I'd advise you to talk to your congressional representative, but alas, MS and IBM got there first, and oh my, they brought their checkbooks.

This country isn't for you. It's for the white trash CEOs who jack the system into anything but a democracy to serve their Gulf V jet and private island "needs". Sure they're destroy the country, but don't worry, they'll be OK in the Caman Islands paradise while they leave you to dig through the remains of what was once a great nation.

[WJeansonne]

What a Marxist if I Ever Saw One!

Just look at that guys appearance and look at this photo of Karl Marx --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_marx.

A wannabe for sure, and I'm quite certain he is one. The sneaky way he is trying to subvert our great national patent system is disgusting. And all of these foolish developers that follow him is even worse.

In case you are unaware, Karl Marx was the founder of "modern" socialism was avowed anti-capitalist. So Marxism is equivalent to socialism and they deplore the concept of private property. Why don't they just move to Europe and stay out of the United States and let us practice capitalism in peace. :-)

[qwerty75]

wow

Software patents are unnecessary, dangerous and without fail illegitimate.

Software patents sifle innovation and capitalism.

Yet you ignorantly call him a marxist based on basically a beard.

What an intellectual giant you are!

[mikkom]

One party or one company, the results is the same

The time Marx lived world was very different place and it is easy to understand that thoughts like that raise when most of the working individuals actually do not have any chance to have better than slavery jobs.

I see his work as utopia, that has no place on earth as long as people are selfish and resourses are scarce (= probably never). However, do not think that "our great national patent system" is tuned for the best to serve capitalism. Patenting is currently mostly useful for big corporations who have money to use their patents to kill little innovitative companies, true advancers of capitalism. And for patent exploiters, who do not do anything else than exploit patents and don't thus have pressure to do crosslicensing deals like companies who actually produce something.

[UrlikSkarsol]

Know what you are talking about

Umm..before making comments about Karl Marx (who Stallman does physically resemble) and the significance of his writings, it might help if you had read them, or at least knew what they were about, beyond some basic, garden variety US anticommunist "Karl Marx is gonna get your mama" propoganda.

[WJeansonne]

Once Again the Open Source Movement is Bifurcating

Yeah I know what a socialist/Marxist is smart aleck. There for all intents and purposes synonymous in my book. Moreover, I know a rat when I see one.

[qwerty75]

re

If you think marxism and socialism are one in the same, I suggest you get some real education and stop watching Fox news.

[laekius]

Facts Correction

Please note, contrary to what the article says, Microsoft is _not_ a member of OSDL (http://groups.osdl.org/osdl_members/osdl_roster/), nor are they supportive of Open Source as Prior Art. Microsoft has taken a strong stand in support of software patents, both in the United States and in the EU.

[azerthoth]

Cooperation a better approach?

The more I follow items of interest to Open Source the more I see a disturbing trend. I may be misguided here, but it seems that Stallman mentally labels anyone who doesnt agree with him and his outlook as a heretic. It may just be that every article that I have read where he is mentioned is on a contentious topic, I question though if it were a hot button issue prior to his interest in it.

Personally I have never met the man, and hold him in some respect for the work he has done. He see's what he and many others percieve as a moral issue and acts upon it, as ultimatly I think we all should. However, there is a form of extremism that easily attaches itself to moral issues. A fanaticism that puts up blinders to outside ideas that ultimatly prevents acceptable comprimise that unifies disparate groups of people. Without that unity Open Source faces the challenge that all the kings soldiers faced. How to put a terminally fractured entity back together again.

OSDL is a good example. Any action that helps defend Open Source, is a good thing. If by your opinion they are taking the the wrong path, perhaps the best thing to do is not denegrate but to work with and towards making it an effective coalition for combating software patents. Perhaps they are walking the primrose path, but working with them, with both sides willing to bend their necks a little is better than dismissing them and lambasting them.

[asdf]

It''s not about Stallman, it's about software

It's a about your ability to make a living without being sued out fo existence. If you act as though software patents were legitimate, you're not going to get anywhere. IBM has 9000 patents on software. Microsoft is getting 3000-4000 a year, including the ability to add and remove whitespace (two different ones). So what if you use the patents from this "safe" pool; you're still going to get a cease adn desist letter in your mailbox- then what? Are you going to fight it? No, you're not.

And yes, this CAN happen to a company JUST your size.

So the POINT is not what is Stallman's attitude, hairstyle, personal characteristics, other opinions or anything else; the point is that software patents are being used ina self conscious way by Adobe, Microsoft and IBM to all but "own" all software development. Obviously not a free market, obviously not good for the consumer

[tplunkett]

change is incremental

Change takes a long time. It doesn't happen all at once.

This is a step in the right direction.