Raw Matter

PJ of Groklaw reports about two lawsuits filed against Mijanda, a company apparently offering fax to email services (Huh? Don't they have a homepage?) While I can't exactly see the open-source link she constructs - yes, they use open source software, and yes, the prior art may be in open source software, but I think the lawsuits could have happened even if they'd use proprietary software), she is quite perceptive where the U.S. patent system is concerned:

Someone really needs to do something about the US patent mess, don't you think? How bad does it have to get before someone fixes it? If allowed, proprietary companies will gladly divvy up the Internet -- and every function on it that we all need to use every day -- until it ends up entirely balkanized and proprietized after all.

Now, while the complete commercialisation and balkanisation of the Internet may be what's happing on the other side of the big pond, I honestly don't see the how this affects me as an European Internet user doing business with non-U.S. companies etc. Yes, a few nice services (provided by American companies or organisations) will have to be dropped or relocated, or a few Internet connections will have to be severed, but hey, this is still Europe here.

So, the impact for me is merely: Don't Do Business With The Unied States of America or You Will Regret It. Simple as that - and, given that most consumer goods are produced in Asia anyway, entirely possible. (Debian, do you hear me? It may finally be time to think about moving our central infrastructures to outside the U.S.!)

Andrew Suffield is mentally retarded, childish and completely unable to relate to other people. Evidence: various discussions on Debian's mailing list (most recently on a Debian internal list, on a quite sensitive topic, so no quotes here) and occasionally on IRC.