Re: [Pan-users] VDQ Re: Policy discussion: GNKSA

[Steven D'Aprano]

Rhialto wrote:
> On Sat 09 Jul 2011 at 19:34:35 +1000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> > That's not how patents work. There's no requirement for actual lines
> > of code written by Microsoft to appear in the product to be a patent
> > infringement.
>
> That is exactly what makes patents evil. In effect, software patents
> monopolize thoughts. Parallel invention is very common in the software
> world, and patents don't recognize that fact.

I'm not going to argue against that, because I happen to believe that 
software patents are harmful myself (or at the very least, software 
patents should last much less time than hardware patents). Nevertheless, 
the fact is that software patents do exist in law, and Microsoft would 
be doing themselves and their shareholders a disservice if they didn't 
use them both to defend themselves against patent trolls and to increase 
revenue.

In other words: Microsoft is not behaving badly, for a corporation.



--
Steven