Actually there is a case that involves some guy who bought a washer garanteed for 10 years, but after 9 years they stopped fixing the washers (the subcorporation had bankrupted to save the mother corporation fixing fees). The mother corporation was still selling the washer, though.
So the judge made the washer company lose the patent! You can only profit from an IP as long as you give technical support for it, he said...
Wait 'till some smart lawyers from Linux try that one on all versions of Microsoft product that are currently without tech support... those versions becoming copyright-expired freeware, without even the GPL strings attached...
Scary. I don't want Windows to BRANCH into a freeware, but I can't stand the current monopoly on volontary compatibility bugs either...
If I were American, I'd vote for the ones that didn't cheat:
The third parties!
The Democrat-Republican front that runs the debate might have to pay damages to the Libertarians, but that won't make them any less of a cheat upon the electoral process.
1- If you can't patent oxygen, patent its use. If you can't patent its use, patent its use at a remote location - deny any prior art.
2- Get a restraining order for astronauts on Mars not to use oxygen in remote locations without being owned by MS first; the patent will be invalidated in less than 5 minutes. If the astronauts manage to survive, patent their heating system for the next 5 minutes after that. If that doesn't work, patent Mars rock analysis to make the whole mission is pointless.
3- Take over Mars. Rename it Microsoft RedPlanet (tm). Make sure MS manuals and college books don't mention the existence of alternatives, such as other planets. Use 18 front organisation to deny the existence of other planets.
4- Claim innovation, good faith, and take over a niche market unethically as punishment if caught taking over a niche market illegally.
5- Repeat until monopoly on everyone else's innovations!
I refuse to be modded funny. That's truly how MS operates!!
Murphy's second law (authorship stolen from anonymous):
Murphy was an optimist.
Murphy's third law:
Whoever said I was an optimist was making an understatement. -Murphy
Now, how does that change the equation? Oh yeah you can divide by zero.
P.S.: considering complexity, deadline urgency and frequency factors(among others), one does not have to know much about Microsoft to assume more bugs per employee per year are produced there than elsewhere... I wish there was an objective way to count bug aggravation to prove the equation right so I could turn my boss over to freeBSD...
Slashdot Mirror
Actually there is a case that involves some guy who bought a washer garanteed for 10 years, but after 9 years they stopped fixing the washers (the subcorporation had bankrupted to save the mother corporation fixing fees). The mother corporation was still selling the washer, though.
So the judge made the washer company lose the patent! You can only profit from an IP as long as you give technical support for it, he said...
Wait 'till some smart lawyers from Linux try that one on all versions of Microsoft product that are currently without tech support... those versions becoming copyright-expired freeware, without even the GPL strings attached...
Scary. I don't want Windows to BRANCH into a freeware, but I can't stand the current monopoly on volontary compatibility bugs either...
>The only MIcrosoft product that doesn't have an >exploit *yet* is their keyboard.
Thanks for the info, I'm gonna fix that oversight. (-;
If I were American, I'd vote for the ones that didn't cheat:
The third parties!
The Democrat-Republican front that runs the debate might have to pay damages to the Libertarians, but that won't make them any less of a cheat upon the electoral process.
MS's 5 steps plan, (c) 1984 by Bill Gates:
1- If you can't patent oxygen, patent its use. If you can't patent its use, patent its use at a remote location - deny any prior art.
2- Get a restraining order for astronauts on Mars not to use oxygen in remote locations without being owned by MS first; the patent will be invalidated in less than 5 minutes. If the astronauts manage to survive, patent their heating system for the next 5 minutes after that. If that doesn't work, patent Mars rock analysis to make the whole mission is pointless.
3- Take over Mars. Rename it Microsoft RedPlanet (tm). Make sure MS manuals and college books don't mention the existence of alternatives, such as other planets. Use 18 front organisation to deny the existence of other planets.
4- Claim innovation, good faith, and take over a niche market unethically as punishment if caught taking over a niche market illegally.
5- Repeat until monopoly on everyone else's innovations!
I refuse to be modded funny. That's truly how MS operates!!
Murphy's second law (authorship stolen from anonymous):
/.??
Murphy was an optimist.
Murphy's third law:
Whoever said I was an optimist was making an understatement. -Murphy
Now, how does that change the equation? Oh yeah you can divide by zero.
P.S.: considering complexity, deadline urgency and frequency factors(among others), one does not have to know much about Microsoft to assume more bugs per employee per year are produced there than elsewhere... I wish there was an objective way to count bug aggravation to prove the equation right so I could turn my boss over to freeBSD...
Or maybe my pointed-haired boss will read