Open Invention Network Calls Out Microsoft

Stony Stevenson writes with news that the head of the Open Invention Network has summarily dismissed Microsoft's claims that Linux violates a number of its patents. Calling the move 'clear FUD', Jerry Rosenthal calls them out by asking for Microsoft to disclose the patents they are worried about. His argument is that if the patents are something to be proud of, if the software giant feels they're sure to succeed in court, there's no need for behind-the-hand namecalling. "Rosenthal believes that, if there are grounds for patent infringement, there would either be easy workarounds or the open source community would find 'prior art' which would invalidate the patent. OIN buys patents on the open market and makes them available to companies royalty free, so long as those companies pledge never to use their own patents to attack open source code.The organisation was set up by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony and has a war chest of millions of dollars."

Two chicks and a rope

[rvw]

I'm thinking about how to make a funny and clever comment about the two chicks in the picture in the article. They appear to stand on snow, which clearly is a reference to Tux, and this is especially true for the blond one in the black dress. What is this rope pulling anyway? What are they fighting over? If one wins, all they have is the rope to slap the other one. The rest is nothing but thin air.

If this picture is meant to illustrate the fight between Linux and Microsoft, I want to be in the middle! Yeah!

A spy

[loconet]

".....The organisation was set up by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony ...."

The list of organizations reminds me of this pic: http://www.siliconhell.com/Images/Mad%20Cat/images/humour/spy.jpg [siliconhell.com]