Appeals court ponders Microsoft patent case

TalkBack 14 of 19:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Technological Development.

Patents applied to software will stifle technological development in the US. The main application of this is in new technologies and emerging technologies, to which open source software can be easily adapted, as it is open and out there and therefore easy to modify and build with and upon. The small guy can change direction rapidly, keep abreast of the latest changes, stay dynamic - he's not under the pressure of the market like the big players are. Enter the patent in the hands of the big player. Now the big player can stop the development of the small guy, can stifle his dynamic advantage, with threats of litigation. Meanwhile, the big guy continues on his plodding way, slowly adapting to trends and stifling new technology development and release until the big guy is well positioned to maximize his profit from the new technology. A good example of this is with hardware - new developments aren't released any time near when they are developed, and new models are released in waves, 1.8 GHz proc., 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 etc. etc. The hope is that the consumer will buy each one and then upgrade to the next when it comes out, maximizing profits. When really, the 3.0 could have just been released and sold for a fair profit. MS does this with their software as well, and they are now focusing on patenting everything in sight, in order to cemet their lock-hold on the software industry. So we're trading technological stagnation for big profit by big business. Who suffers? The consumer, and the country. Come the judgment day, there won't be any trumpets blowing, boys.

Posted by: Kamikaze_Ohka   Posted on: 12/10/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now