[YBA] i4i vs MS?

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Aug 13, 2009, at 12:31 PM, Shachar Shemesh wrote:


> And yet, we cannot seem to draft Microsoft to the anti-software  
> patents camp. Despite the fact that their loses to silly patents  
> over the years far outweight their gains from them.
>
> Amazing


With all due respect what amazes me is that you believe that. Can you  
offer any objective proof?

In the real world, people expect return on their investment. No one is  
going to invest money in a company that gives away technology that  
cost them their life savings, their retirement plan, or their home  
without some other perceived return on investment.

Israel is different, it's investment system is based upon "pump and  
dump", where the early investors quitely sell out to late stage  
investors who keep putting money into a company with nothing to offer,  
hopping that they can sell out to yet latter investors, or by some  
miracle it will stumble upon a working technology.

I even know one company which bought the IP from a failed company  
which was funded by the CSO. What are they doing? Trying for a second  
shot of CSO money. I wish them luck.

Personally, I can't think of an open source product where someone is  
not just pouring money into it and not making a real profit. Discount  
those where the idea was to give away the program to sell hardware or  
compete with an existing product.  (OpenOffice.Org fits both of those.)

Geoff.


-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com