Thoughts on Microsoft's patent infringement case?

For those that don't know what I'm talking about read here .

I don't think that Eolas will get that motion passed, but it does present some interesting consequences to think about.

1)Motion passes, MS must stop selling its OSes until they roll out their workaround integrated into IE... yeah right

2)Motion passes, MS deploys its workaround early and people don't upgrade their IE for a while

3)Motion passes MS deploys its workaround early, many people download it and screams are heard from around the internet as any time a flash app or ad is loaded a message box pops up as MS' workaround.

4)Motion does not pass and MS gets their appeal and the prior art
of the viola browser gets patent repealed.

5)Microsoft settles for huge bucks out of court, not very interesting at all

6)This case gets tied up in litigation with nothing interesting happening for many years and things go on as usual

It's also interesting that the holder of the patent has stated that he won't go after alternative browsers (perhaps until his greed kicks in if he can't squeeze enough out of MS). Perhaps this may lead to more people using Firebird and other IE alternatives?

-b

I hate Eolas and the U of California. Their 'noble' (*cough*) war is a complete crock.

1) It's pathetic that they got the patent in the first place.

2) It's pathetic they successfully sued Microsoft. It's nice to see MS take a hit, but not like this. It's an insult to everyone who has been trying to legitimately take on the company.

3) Despite their goals, taking down IE (like that will happen...) will only make things worse.

Most people aren't going to know jack about the lawsuit, or why browsing has become an annoying maze of dialog box clicking, or why those fancy animations have gone away, or whatever. Hopefully this time they'll have a sane judge who won't stubbornly disallow major arguments of Microsoft. The judge flat out refused arguments describing prior art...in a patent case...wtf? Hello? McFly? Hello? Some of the things that were disallowed sound very fishy in that they shouldn't have...but I don't know enough about the actual legal case.

And the idea of only going after MS is a bunch of crap too. If they seriously think that any other serious company making browsers will ignore the case and continue on their merry little way, they're smoking alot worse stuff than I thought. No company will continue to create their browsers the same way, they will all adapt, which will throw the web standards back even more than IE already has with their abandoned browser. After all, at a whim theowner (and only employee) of Eolas can decide to sue any other company just for the hell of it. Nothing is stopping him from taking the next browser. His word and 'noble' goals...right, I'm gonna trust that slimy prick's sense of honor. Opera comes to mind since they aren't a non-profit organization. Sure the payout won't be as much, but it will be enough for a mansion none the less.

My favorite quote, reported in a c|net article:
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. You're perfectly willing to be friends after they pay you up the *** for your ponied up patent for technology you didn't invent and you shouldn't have gotten in the first place. How nice and noble. If only every company would act like this. Oh, and how nice, they also want over a hundred million in interest for the money that wasn't and (and shouldn't) be paid to them. What an excellent business example.

Maybe I'll go do my post doc at the U of California. I'd have all the respect in the world for myself if I worked in such a fine institution.

Wahey! If it removes Flash from the web then it can only be good. Shame the rest has to go, but that's simply how it has to be to remove the web of Flash. One thing is, I hate it when companies just do stuff for money, I mean if Eolas had any idea of responsibility they would just be aiming to get rid of Flash.

Did I get the message across?

P.S. I'm going to patent the 'End Now' button so I can claim money for every time a Win machine crashes.... $b in minutes woohoo!

Binky! Where have you been man? I haven't seen a binky post in quite some time. Welcome back to happy land!

Been working on a few projects:

http://www.bighair.co.uk - shopping portal thingy
http://www.electromancer.com - an mp3 hosting site thingy

A few other thingy's, then I ran out of thingy's.

If MS is so gung-ho about purchasing licenses from SCO for their Unix IP, why are they so against purchasing a license from Eolas for their plug-in IP? Seems rather hypocritical.

I'm 100% on board with MJ's line of thinking. Eolas is pulling strings that could bring the roof down on everything, not just on Microsoft. Thanks to this idiotic ruling (as if there was any other kind in the U.S. these days regarding patents), Eolas is free to go wail on anybody they don't happen to like at any given time.

Opera's charging money for their browsers? Turn the cannon on them. Mozilla did something Eolas' head guy doesn't like? Fire away!

Eolas, as far as I'm concerned, has proven themself to be an enemy of not just the open source community, but the technology sector as a whole. It's not even a matter anymore of whether they will or won't abuse this power. This motion shows that they are more than willing to abuse it for their own personal gain and that's frightening.

Just because they're a little guy doesn't mean they're a good guy. They're using the same abusive approach that companies like PanIP and Amazon are... that makes them an abusive bad guy just PanIP and Amazon.

The CEO of Eolas stated in an interview that he only plans on milking MS on this one. However, you're right - the second Moz or Opr tick them off, its off to court we go.

That doesn't matter. The fact is they're abusing an absolutely ridiculous patent that they should never have been given in the first place.

Just because they're hitting Microsoft in the face with it instead of someone we like doesn't make it OK.... much as I like to see Microsoft get hit in the face with things...

I agree.

Agreed, btw who has a link to the clip of Bill Gates getting hit in the face with the pie handy?

-b