In terms of fairness, I think getting people who cite an IEEE paper to pay something to the IEEE would be a reasonable solution since they have clearly benefited from reading that article.
But of course, it is not easy to implement. It is also a negative incentive to citing that paper which is bad since the one thing authors want is to be cited.
Surely you can't compare ATT and Microsoft in this respect. ATT didn't care very much for Linux and was quite prepared to let it live its own life. I wouldn't say the same of Microsoft here.
Think of the damage caused when even a dwarf like SCO starts making improbable claims about IP ownership. It won't cause any irreversible damage to Linux but still. But now imagine the same thing with M$ running the show. However much I like C#, I would be nervous risking to be at the receiving end.
I just don't trust the legal system enough on that one.
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In terms of fairness, I think getting people who cite an IEEE paper to pay something to the IEEE would be a reasonable solution since they have clearly benefited from reading that article.
But of course, it is not easy to implement. It is also a negative incentive to citing that paper which is bad since the one thing authors want is to be cited.
Surely you can't compare ATT and Microsoft in this respect. ATT didn't care very much for Linux and was quite prepared to let it live its own life. I wouldn't say the same of Microsoft here.
Think of the damage caused when even a dwarf like SCO starts making improbable claims about IP ownership. It won't cause any irreversible damage to Linux but still. But now imagine the same thing with M$ running the show. However much I like C#, I would be nervous risking to be at the receiving end.
I just don't trust the legal system enough on that one.