If the Supreme Court agees, here comes an Avalanche of file-sharing... So, what do you think the odds are that Microsoft will bring this to market if the Supreme Court rules that file-sharing is legal? I'm thinking they're pretty good. And what do you think the Men of Redmond are likely to charge for this? Probably the same they charge for most of their "utility" products that get incorporated (bundled, whatever), into Windows. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nil. What can they charge? BitTorrent, eXeem, and their ilk are free, too. Microsoft generally does a good job of pricing themselves below their competitors. With Open Source software, Microsoft has to effectively lower the price of Windows by including the same features consumers receive from the third-party software, built-in to Windows at no extra cost. Of course, if the Supreme Court goes the other way, Avalanche probably never sees the light of day. Should be an interesting week, no?  ¶ 8:20 PM 0 comments

  I think there might be a trend going on here... So the Supreme Court is finally set to rule on whether file-sharing software violates copyright. While I have no idea which way the court is going to rule, I think the story above this one might give a clue, no?  ¶ 8:12 PM 0 comments

  Do Patents Shine Up? They might... Congress is moving towards changes to patent law that may clean up intellectual property for the first time in a long time. I still need to get up to speed on this one, but given that current patent law couldn't be much worse, particularly when it comes to disputes of "prior art," this can't be a bad thing. Curious to hear what others think on this one. Dig in, eh?  ¶ 12:15 AM 0 comments