[NCLUG] The Microsoft vs. Red Penguins Thread

[John L. Bass]

Just as GPL is based on Copyright protections, open source needs to think
about similar IP protections and build a software patent library as well.
In the corporate world, the biggies trade patent licenses to mitigate violations,
as a currency. The better a patent library you have, the easier it is to
deal with your competitors patents.

The more software development there is under open source (free of corporation
sponsors) the more likely software patents can be successfully filed and
won. Just need a major open source sponsor to back creating the pool, and
change the mindset that software patents are all bad, thus avoiding creating
a protective pool.

John