Slashdot Mirror
Maybe Software Patents Won't Kill FOSS After All
Roblimo writes "Lawrence Rosen, attorney for the Open Source Initiative, doesn't seem to be as worried about software patents' effects on open source development as some Slashdot readers. In this article he says, 'Don't be too paranoid about the patent problem. It's a real problem, but not a catastrophe. Any patent owner that tries to assert its patents against open source software has many hurdles to leap before the royalty checks start to arrive.'"
What the fuck are you talking about, idiot?
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
Many patent holders would not go make a case against OSS, but there are a certain breed of scumbags out there who make it their biz to go search for patents and potential violators. They then contact the patent holder and ask for the right to go chace the infringer at no cost to the patent holder, except for a slice of the action.
Once the lawyer bastard has a "percentage ownership", the patent holder loses a lot of their rights as to whom they will pursue or not. Even if the patent holder is a nice guy, the whole business is reduced to lawyer level (ie lower than shark shit) morality.
Engineering is the art of compromise.