Sun calls NetApp's blog bluff...with open source...in a blog
,----[ Quote ]
| I know nothing about the validity of either side's patent claims. Only a
| judge (or, more likely, a settlement) will elucidate either claim. But I have
| watched Microsoft respond to open source with patent FUD, and I'm willing to
| believe that others will fight back in this same way. I don't know that
| NetApp is--Hitz argues pretty persuasively that there were other reasons
| involved--but I do believe that any company that relies on an old way of
| selling its software needs to respond to the open-source threat.
|
| Patent suits are one way to do that. An ugly, and ultimately futile way, but
| a way nonetheless.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9772580-7.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=NewsBlog
NetApp + Sun = legal havoc
,----[ Quote ]
| Now, this is enough to me. I don't fucking care who is infringing whose
| patents. It's more and more clear that patents (all kind of patents!) don't
| do anything to the benefit of the public. They're not good for the humanity
| at large, but only to lawyers.
|
| And when you see how two major IT actors are trying to make money from
| lawsuits instead of making profit from the technologies they're supposed to
| develop, you have all the rights in the world to think that the current
| Establishment is broken.
|
| Because it is broken. You can see it every day with U.S.-based companies.
`----
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2007/09/06/08/55/23-netapp-sun-legal-havoc
Related:
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
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