Kodak wins Sun Java patents case, wants $1bn

[aleph_null1]

Just out in today's issue of The Register: http://www.theregister.com/2004/10/04/kodak_wins_java/

Basically, Kodak was able to aquire some patents on Java in late '97 from the mostly defunct Wang Labs, and has managed to convince an American court that Sun now owes them $1.06 billion == half of Sun's operating profit from servers and storage products between 1998 and 2001.

The situation with intellectual property patents in the US is getting ridiculous...

[Timber Loftis]

Yeah, of course when it comes to Kodak v. Sun, who cares? They're both pretty crap companies. Sun's probably worse.

Okay, Aleph, read the article. Can you tell me what's so bad about it? I mean, is intellectual property property? Or not?

[ 10-04-2004, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[aleph_null1]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Okay, Aleph, read the article. Can you tell me what's so bad about it? I mean, is intellectual property property? Or not?

Right, so I'm a big supporter of the Free Software Foundation, &tc., but I've really got little problem with a company (like Sun) that develops an entire language over a long R&D process enjoying some of the fruits of its labor.

I do have a problem with another company castrating that developer with some few thousand lines of code bought at flea market prices from a moribund sub-contractor on the project.

To put it mildly [img]tongue.gif[/img]