hypocrites?
Hypocrites? - Recently Dave Winer suggested there was something hypocritical in the way that Microsoft’s Craig Mundie said “of course!” when asked if Microsoft would potentially enforce patents if infinged. Dave’s reasoning is that Microsoft seems to be fighting against government regulation (in the DOJ case), yet is willing to rely on government regulations in the form of patent protections. This brings up an interesting point — where would Microsoft be if there were no copyright laws? Would Microsoft or any of the early contemporaries like Phillipe Kahn or Mitch Kapor have even bothered to get into the software business if there had been no copyright laws to protect their intellectual investments? Certainly there is room for argument over which IP instruments (patents, copyright, trademark, etc.) are “good” and which are “bad”, but it is hard to argue that the software industry thrives best in a completely lawless environment.