Craig Box wrote:
An interesting idea that came out of the /. thread on this topic was that Microsoft have a finite number of patents, and it would be a doable task, spread out amongst the entire open source ecosystem, to check each patent, and see if there is a chance there is infringing code in "Linux"/OSS. Again, it all comes down to the interpretation of angry lawyers, so even that might not solve anything.
It's an interesting idea, but it doesn't take into account that the patent system is so broken that there are likely to have been patents issued that are so broad as to make re-implementation impossible without completely altering the nature or operation of an application. -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 21 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz