Re: [Patents] GregNews: swpat solve MS monopoly problems

[Xavi Drudis Ferran <xdrudis@tinet.org>]

El Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 09:08:41AM +0100, PILCH Hartmut deia:
> the Eolas lawsuit against Microsoft, and I will be boring by repeatedly
> pointing out that none of these challenges against Microsoft would be
> possible with copyrighted software such as anything open source.

On the possibility of the Eolas challenge being possible, I haven't 
read much about it, but can someone share more light on these doubts:


I have only read
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20021107.html

not slashdot, not the patent document, no nothing. My gut feeling,
without much info is:

I doubt that:

a) Eolas can win. I mean has enough money to prosecute the case to the end,
nothing to do with who is right or the validity of any patent.

b) Eolas can impose an alternative browser. A browser would infringe
on many patents, some probably by MS, some by other that would feel
threathened by their plans. So you could only end up with no legal
broser at all, or disfunctional legal browsers. Remember, JPEG, tabbed
palletes, GIF, parts of XML, SOAP and other protocols, and
cryptographic software are patented.

c) Having a browser platform built on patent exclusion instead of
competition would improve in any way the market.

This sounds like the typical crazy scientist developing the ultimate
weapon to threaten the evil forces and save the Earth, assuming the
end justifies the means.


-- 
Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis@tinet.org