On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:36:31 -0700, Richard Clark
wrote:

When the capitalists go into China with Hammer and Tong over copyright
issues, they are not selling anything. And since the introduction of
Linux as a substantial option, the Chinese have shown even less
interest in M$. There's the payoff of investments in Hammer and Tongs
on a sliding scale.

Hi All,

Now a quote from IBM (today, just as M$ quote was from today):

"Earlier this year, I.B.M. made a broad gesture toward what it
called a new era in how it controls intellectual property. It
announced in January that it would make 500 patents - mainly for
software code that manages electronic commerce, storage, image
processing, data handling and Internet communications - freely
available to others.

"And it pledged that more such moves would follow.

"This month, the company said that all of its future patent
contributions to the largest standards group for electronic
commerce on the Web, the Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards, would be free.

"I.B.M. is at the forefront, but companies in industry after
industry are also reconsidering their strategies on intellectual
property: What do you share? What do you keep proprietary?"

In today's marketplace, the pampered notions and dreams spun into
vague platitudes about protection are no defense to global cut-throat
capitalism.

These recent events throws the musty notion of patents being necessary
to support R&D into a cocked hat.

Franklin pointed out these false illusions long ago.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC