Microsoft holds off on Eolas-based tweaks

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Trouble is, we're all waiting anmd seeing.

It's unavoidable, but until this is resolved one way or the other, a whole industry sits wondering whether all the work they do today, tomorrow, next week (and God knows for how much longer) will need to be taken appart again, in just a few months time, and redone.

Employers in the Web industry are remarkably fond of Flash; many insist on its use. However, any major reworking needed on sites that make heavy use of Flash could very likely push them in the opposite direction. True, many of us hate Flash, but the irony of all this is that a finding for Eolas - while hard for Microsoft to bear - could prove fatal to Macromedia, as well as other manufacturers of plugin-based technologies.

The truth is, that, as others here have said, the actual QUESTION of who is right or wrong, appears to be staring us plainly in the face (just as it is in the SCO/Linux dispute). However, the snails pace at which the courts proceed in matters like this puts a major segment of a whole industry into suspended annimation, while we all wait for some judge to come the same conclusions many of us came to months previously.

Personnally, I regard Michael Doyle's recent offer to waive charges for the use of his technology to some people while levying it stringently against others (namely, Microsoft) as indicative of one of the most *worrying* *attributes* of software patenting: the holder of the patent can sit back in some office in California and blithely dictate who can, and who cannot, make a profit within the industry - effectively steering it in whatever direction he or she sees fit.

Mind you, IBM's been doing that for years with hardware, hasn't it? (We're no supposed to say that, though, are we? The orthodox line is that IBM "lost control" of the PC... The fact that Intel Pentium IIIs - never mind IVs - would be *impossible* *to* *make*, without the use of IBM's SOI technology; the fact that something like 80% of the material profits from the manufacture of an x86 chip goes straight to IBM, in the form of patent rights; the fact that even Sun Microsystems have to pay IBM their "SOI tarrif", on their *own* Ultra-sparc chipsets... that's niether here nor there, is it? Oh no, IBM lost control! We have nothing to fear from patents!)

Posted by: DanIelWalker_z   Posted on: 01/30/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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