RE: [xml-dev] Another Microsoft XML patent

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <len.bullard@intergraph.com>]

The patent wars are a cancer.  Replication 
is not evolution.

I'm an analyst.  For better or worse, I have 
to tell the truth as I see it or I don't do 
the job.  If it depresses you, you can 
imagine the effect I have on my co-workers 
and why they did their best to frag me to 
the point that I had to lock down my blog. 

Still standing.  This isn't heroic or even 
brave; it is enlightened self-interest.
Openness and transparency protect
freedom.  Even with the pain, it is better than 
ignorance because with knowledge, the future is 
pregnant with choices instead of inevitabilities. 
Stupid is bad for anyone regardless of how 
powerful or how pitiful.

If you ever wonder why I stick close to the 
markup community, it is because they are the 
living working example of belief in the 
principles of openness and transparency and 
they backed that up with open standards and 
running code.  Even the most repressive cannot 
overcome the relentless urge to communicate.

len


From: Alan Gutierrez [mailto:alan-xml-dev@engrm.com]

    Thank you, Len. That was perfectly depressing.

    I like that someone is willing to say that frivolous software
    patents are currently used by large firms to coerce the market.

    I've not wanted to point out how naive that defense sounds for
    fear of falling into a left versus right perma thread about
    corporations, globalization, and whatnot.

    The threat does come from enormous patent portfolios filled with
    undergraduate computer science text.

    Thanks for this.