Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> Stallman: Free software is matter of good vs. evil
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "I'm neither for nor against selling copies of software," he said.
> | "The question of money is secondary. There is no conflict between
> | free software and capitalism."
> |
> | And free software promotes democracy, too.
> `----
>
> http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/43541-1.html
>
> Patent Pirates
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The suit alleges that the security-software giant infringed on a
> | DeepNines patent, one that combines an intrusion detection and
> | prevention system with a firewall, in a single device. McAfee
> | denies the charge, saying the patent relies on previously known
> | technology, and is gearing up for a long and costly fight.
> `----
>
> http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/044.html?partner=yahoomag
.----
| But DeepNines has found a way to fund its burgeoning legal bills. In
| January it sold an $8 million zero coupon note to Altitude Capital
| Partners, a New York City private equity firm, promising in return a
| cut of any winnings stemming from the lawsuit. The payout is based on
| a formula that grants Altitude a percentage that decreases with a
| bigger award.
|
| This deal was dreamed up by Robert Kramer, who founded Altitude in
| 2005, raising $250 million from hedge funds and others to invest in
| intellectual property. So far Kramer has put $100 million to work in
| nine investments. He's got plenty of company in this new game. Coller
| Capital, a London private equity firm with a $2.6 billion fund,
| quietly formed Coller IP Capital with an eye toward investing $200
| million a year. Rembrandt IP Management, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa. firm, has
| raised $150 million, and Northwater Capital, a $9 billion Toronto
| manager of funds of hedge funds, put together NW Patent Funding last
| year. Both exist solely to exploit patent lawsuits in the U.S.
|
| Sounds a lot like patent trolling, a much-vilified practice in which
| contingency lawyers or small companies with no operations sue
| businesses to extort money. But funds like Altitude insist they're
| asserting legitimate claims. "I don't get emotional about this
| issue," says Kramer, who used to be a managing director at a Fortress
| Investment Group (nyse: FIG - news - people ) hedge fund. "I am a
| financial investor."
`----
So "investors" are abusing the judicial system, like it was just another
corporate investment. Taking someone to court for IP violations is no
longer something one does as a defensive countermeasure, but is actually
something one carefully plans for, as a proactive investment decision.
Sickening.
> Who need that litigious garbage?
Like the clever man said, "Sounds a lot like patent trolling".
Sounds like an abuse of the law, to me.
> While nations like China freely develop and innovate, Americans take
> their battles to court, over trivial algorithms whose ownership they
> claim.
One wonders how many of these "inventions" were actually discovered in
China first, many years before those in the West claimed discovery. The
Chinese are not exactly forthcoming, and they are one of the oldest
civilizations on earth. I wonder what these Western "inventors" would do
if China started mounting international court battles, claiming "prior
art" on every invention since the dawn of civilisation. Overnight, China
would become the richest country in the world. And these opportunists in
the West, would be left broke, humiliated, and looking very stupid indeed.
Good job that not everyone in the world thinks of everything as a
"commodity" to be bought and sold, isn't it.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| I found [Vista] to be a dangerously unstable operating system,
| which has caused me to lose data ... unfortunately this product
| is unfit for any user. - [H]ardOCP, <http://tinyurl.com/3bpfs2>
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Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.20-1.2312.fc5
23:23:42 up 4 days, 20:55, 3 users, load average: 0.57, 0.44, 0.52
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