Comments

• Needs Sunlight

  2010-06-19 18:41:28

  Today's Dilbert on Novell's business model. If ever there is a need to review why the GPLv3 is needed in the US and why Europe needs to shutdown software patent boosters, now is the time.
  
  Many that should know better seem to be rather naive or obtuse as to why FSF and FSFE have to take different focuses. In Europe, it is about upholding the 1972 European Patent Convention and keeping from making the same catastrophe as in the US. Patents and formulas cannot be patented, and it is easier to keep it that way. In the US, it is about using licensing to mitigate the damage until the laws can be rolled back to something more pro-business and eliminate software patents.
  
  Mistakes like OIN, just feed the trolls, risk lending a legitimacy to an illegitimate business method, and drive up the price of both patents and patent litigation. OIN also hurts us all because of the focus on developers, which are largely irrelevant to software patents and taking away attention from end-users who are the ones on the hook for payment.