Re: [xml-dev] Another Microsoft XML patent

[Rick Marshall <rjm@zenucom.com>]

Michael Kay wrote:

>If other companies can come along and take from MS
>  
>
>>or Amazon an idea for a software product or feature on their online
>>stores this directly effects the Seattle economy 
>>    
>>
>
>Microsoft built its business by doing things that other people had done
>before, and in many cases doing it better. The same is true of Amazon.
>
>Our whole industry thrives on people taking existing ideas and improving
>them.
>
>No one has a right to sit back and say "that's our territory for the next 25
>years, you're not allowed in". If ideas could be protected like that,
>Microsoft and Amazon would not exist, and Seattle would be a poorer place.
>  
>
and if knowledge is the key to future wealth, seattle is busy making 
itself rich while guaranteeing that the third world will remain poor. 
this is a moral problem.

for those with little or no experience outside the us, start looking.

the web, and xml in particular, has the potential to help billions of 
people enjoy better lives, rather than just a few million in the far 
north west of the us.

think of it this way - among the most obvious forms of technology in 
third world countries are mobile phones and the internet.

rick

technological socialism?

>Michael Kay
>
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an
>initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org>
>
>The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
>manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php>
>
>
>!DSPAM:42a4569f170341650982513!
>
>  
>
begin:vcard
fn:Rick  Marshall
n:Marshall;Rick 
email;internet:rjm@zenucom.com
tel;cell:+61 411 287 530
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard