Intellectual property and management fashion (was: How to protect python code ?)

[A. Lloyd Flanagan]

claird at lairds.com (Cameron Laird) wrote in message news:<v95njdh72j0af9 at corp.supernews.com>...
...
> As a non-lawyer, I understand this to support the proposition
> that, when I buy from Microsoft, I first need to investigate
> all of Microsoft's affairs, to be certain the product I intend
> to buy doesn't infringe on any patents.  So:  as a Microsoft
> customer, my liability is essentially unlimited, while Micro-
> soft's "is usually limited to the purchase price of the 
> software."
> 
> It's good to know that.

It's not entirely Microsoft's fault; the whole case is a classic
example of why software patents are a terrible idea.  See the cases
listed by The League for Programming Freedom (http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/).

Most of these patents are invalid due to prior art, it's virtually
impossible to determine if you've infringed on a patent, many are
riduculously broad -- it's a terrible mess.