MS Patents: weapons against linux?

[mobrien_12]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34391.html

[WMD]

quote:MS Patents: weapons against linux?

Yes, of course.  Haven't you read the Halloween documents?  

[Refalm]

quote:WMD: Yes, of course.  Haven't you read the Halloween documents?  

Halloween Documents, mainly by Eric Raymond who lives in the Netherlands and kinda invented Sendmail.

[Calum]

does ESR live in the netherlands? how cool! and i thought he was in charge of fetchmail, rather than sendmail, or am i just getting confused?

[flap]

According to his site Raymond lives in Pennsylvania. And Eric Allman wrote sendmail.

[Claris]

I thought that in order to get a patent you actually had to have your own ideas...

[WMD]

quote:Originally posted by Claris:
I thought that in order to get a patent you actually had to have your own ideas...

No, you just have to have an idea that no one else patented already.  :mad:

[flap]

No, if the idea already exists it's prior art and can't be patented by someone else. It doesn't have to have been patented previously to be unpatentable.

[WMD]

quote:Originally posted by flap:
No, if the idea already exists it's prior art and can't be patented by someone else.

Ah, but MS doesn't seem to think so.