"If you pay any attention to the endless debates over intellectual property policy in the United States, you'll hear two numbers invoked over and over again, like the stuttering chorus of some Philip Glass opera: 750,000 and $200 to $250 billion. The first is the number of U.S. jobs supposedly lost to intellectual property theft; the second is the annual dollar cost of IP infringement to the U.S. economy. These statistics are brandished like a talisman each time Congress is asked to step up enforcement to protect the ever-beleaguered U.S. content industry. And both, as far as an extended investigation by Ars Technica has been able to determine, are utterly bogus." - sadly, i couldn't be less surprised

just for my later reference

had this one open for a long while: excellent advice from a practitioner

interesting to see Miguel this outspoken on the subject. one wonders if there are wider implications.

fascinating. note especially the discussion in the comments.

very interesting look at the IP issues around and behind Android

"I have decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues" - a loss, but like Luis, i wish Lessig nothing but luck

tons of folks have already pointed to this, but it's worth another link; how many times do we need to explain why software patents don't work?

better piece than mine on patent messaging, marketing and so on

insightful (as usual) commentary from Andy on Microsoft's recent patent FUD

couple of folks pointed me to this, and they're right - it's a very useful, and very rational, take on patents and other mechanisms like copyright, trade secrets and so forth

"If push comes to shove, would Microsoft sue its customers for royalties, the way the record industry has? 'That's not a bridge we've crossed," says CEO Ballmer, "and not a bridge I want to cross today on the phone with you.' " - that's not a no <sigh>

i hope they mean it

Dave's right: there's little doubt in my mind that open source telephony is increasingly a force to be reckoned with - the "not ready for the enterprise" bit obscures the importance. MySQL is, according to conv. wisdom, "not ready for the enterprise"

these threats are growing very tiresome; rumor has it this presentation wasn't well received, incidentally

i know there are folks within Microsoft - Matusow, Hilf, et al - that get it, but it's more apparent every day that Ballmer et al do not; Stephe explains why here

"is important to us, because [otherwise] we believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability." - wow

indemnify them from what, precisely?

Havoc's not happy w/ the Microsoft/Novell deal

Novell addresses additional post-acquisition questions; they needed to, questions are ripping around the various communities affected

this is exhibit A of why patents in this area are just a bad idea; i'll be very interested to see, however, whether or not Amazon is viewed sympathetically or not given their own past patent history

"In the end, you don’t end up owning the IP [intellectual property] behind it," said Charles Philips; i guess he forgot to tell MySQL and Sleepycat that

Friend of RedMonk Walli's thoughts on the recent IBM patent announcements

Wez on the Zend PHP framework; very reasonable, rational take

is WS-Security "open?"

more on the Mono / Avalon/Indigo situation

couldn't disagree more; this is a terrible idea, IMO, that just furthers notions of MS as anti-sharing, open, etc

thank god for digital cameras and photo printers

terrific question, but not, alas, one that's likely to get asked

some commentary from the FSF on the various licenses

anyone still believe that open source products are the only ones with patent issues?

Bill Gates interview part four with Gizmodo

just what it says

disappointing commentary from Gates

gmail and patents

beginnings of an IP/patent war?