Litigation is just another means of discussion
Every once in awhile I read something on the web I wish I'd done. Stephen Walli has put up "When are you going to sue your customers?" which is a brilliant essay on the real risk of using OSS in the enterprise as well as a good primer on where the software patent system is.
Excerpt:
"Intellectual property is important – but between vendors. Cross licenses, patent pools, and simple licenses exist and are business as usual. “Litigation is just another means of discussion."
I tried to touch upon this concept a little in some prior posts where I mentioned what happens when these means of discussion are being turned on individuals, but damn Mr. Walli did a great write up. If you've never heard his name, he's an ex-Microsoft employee who worked there on some OSS stuff (yes, Microsoft does some open source stuff).
Posted by drunkenbatmanJanuary 28, 2005, at 11:50 PM
