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{MSX}
19-11-2004, 05:57 PM
Hi, as the ones of you who read Slashdot already know, the last Microsoft brilliant idea was to patent nothing less than the "isnot" operator of Basic (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220040230959%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20040230959&RS=DN/20040230959). :P

The patent was is waiting to explode :P
BenBE
19-11-2004, 09:02 PM
Sorry, but the link doesn't work.
WILL
20-11-2004, 12:44 AM
Woked for me.

What nonsense. :?
Useless Hacker
20-11-2004, 01:21 PM
Which is why you all need to Sign the Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe (http://petition.eurolinux.org/) and stop them doing that over here.
jasonf
20-12-2004, 08:36 PM
Signed it.

Software Patents are wrong.
Copyright is good.
They are not related.
Lightning
21-12-2004, 08:32 AM
They have gone too far, how can you pattent a word or a color ?! :shock: :evil: :twisted:
It's the second on my list of human stupidity after the color patents.
So now we can't use this instruction because MS pattented it ?
The guys who approve them even read such nonsense claims ?
Pattents are so wrong for some things like words or colors,
they are good for inventions(real objects) not software.
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
WILL
21-12-2004, 08:57 AM
They have gone too far... ...they are good for inventions(real objects) not software.

Lightning, I could not agree with you more. :roll:
Ultra
21-12-2004, 11:45 AM
Actually I doubt that Microsoft are the ones to blame. If they'd not patent it someone else probably would and then sue Microsoft. Most of the time that companies patent stuff like this it is to protect itself rather than using it against others.
{MSX}
21-12-2004, 12:44 PM
Actually I doubt that Microsoft are the ones to blame. If they'd not patent it someone else probably would and then sue Microsoft. Most of the time that companies patent stuff like this it is to protect itself rather than using it against others.

I don't think this is the case for Microsoft. If i know how they think (and you can just look back at the past), they'll surely use it for some barely legal action.
I think it is very probable that they'll use it as a weapon against linux and open source. Just wait some year and we'll see.
Ultra
25-12-2004, 04:41 PM
I still doubt that they'll try anything, killing off the open source comunity is doomed adventure anyway.
However, they've already talked about how Linux violates more than 228 patents (click (http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=2857)) so who knows. :wink:
cairnswm
27-12-2004, 06:20 PM
Very Very out of date but here is a borland version:

http://www.base.com/software-patents/statements/borland.testimony.html

They seem to have enough patents themselves. In 2001 they recieved their 93rd Patent - as released in a JBuilder newsletter.
Sly
30-12-2004, 02:40 AM
Hmm.. I read the original message as Microsoft patenting the "i snot" operator.