NetApp sues Sun over ZFS intellectual property

[nslay]

For NetApp's side:
http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2007/09/netapp-sues-sun.html

For a pretty good view of both sides:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2179693,00.asp

Its a dissappointment when patents take something great and ruin it for everyone.  Patents on techniques make about as much sense as patents on techniques to solve math/scientific problems.
"Oops, you're going to have to pay Company X a license fee before you can use Fourier Transform"

[iago]

Yeah, patents on things like algorithms are stupid. Hopefully, somebody will come to his/her senses and they'll abolish patents on ideas like they were supposed to be.

What sucks is, if I write a piece of software from scratch, odds are that I'm going to infringe on a bunch of different patents that I've never even heard of, for concepts that are fairly obvious. As a result, writing software is a total minefield.

[nslay]

I can understand where patents apply.  The only place it should apply is quite simply plagerism.  ZFS doesn't plagerize WAFL.  However, a patent currently applies to the broader concept.  Like anybody can tell a story, anybody can code...how the story is told makes the difference, much like the quality of the code, whoever does it better deserves the sales, not the damn inventor!  A patent is unamerican as it attempts to stifle competition.

P.S. If UNIX were under a patent, then any Unix-like system would be violating it since it copies the concept of Unix (i.e. the look, the API, ... everything).

[Sidoh]

Yeah, patents on things like algorithms are stupid. Hopefully, somebody will come to his/her senses and they'll abolish patents on ideas like they were supposed to be.

What sucks is, if I write a piece of software from scratch, odds are that I'm going to infringe on a bunch of different patents that I've never even heard of, for concepts that are fairly obvious. As a result, writing software is a total minefield.

Yeah, I totally agree.

If only there were virtual robots who would sacrifice themselves for me in the minefield.  Wait, hold on... hey, Joe...  Hehe, just kidding. :)

[iago]

Didn't SCO try to sue Linux et al for patent violations and fail?

[Hitmen]

Didn't SCO try to sue Linux et al for patent violations and fail?

Miserably.

[Newby]

Didn't SCO try to sue Linux et al for patent violations and fail?

Miserably.

High-five.