An example of pettiness in the industry

Read:

http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/03/04/204255.shtml

Although I personally don't approve of MySpace or FaceBook or any networking sites where you put up too much of your personal data online( including birth date , age , gender , personal contacts ... etc) , the main focus is on the electronic Scrabbles game made by two Indian brothers.

It shows that those companies going against just two brothers ... only two brothers .. are willing to pool all the resources ... just to 'kill off' two person. Isn't this really too much ?

I personally feel that those companies should have worked with the two brothers ... to expand the influence of their games... rather than turn on the brothers. Why don't you use these two talents when they are standing right in front of you ? If you managed to get the help og these two brothers, you can create better versions of the Scrabulous and maybe a Scrabulous Pro version where some money is needed for some sort of subscription ?

It shows how petty these companies are.... these are not the only cases where patents are used so carelessly and without a second thought and so commonly misused... just to squeeze as much money out of the poor victims. If the victims were huge companies deliberately violating and making huge amount of profits for their very own use ... then maybe they need a squeeze... but these are two brothers who wrote the program for free...

Good work for the two brothers... this is the spirit of Free Software. Maybe you might want to seek the help of FSF if you get into any trouble (as long as your software is free and open source ... FSF would help defend you).

I think patent owners should really think twice before they use their patent rights ... because most patent cases.. according to my observation .. are carelessly and most often... misused.

By misusing patents rights, patents become a symbol of control... not freedom .. and thus generate more negative feelings towards it .