-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 It's not a hoax. However, it is probably one of the many, many patents that are applied for, most of which that are granted, whose only purpose is to lock the market on that idea. In this case, the optimist in me hopes that no one, schools or otherwise, are dumb enough to accept such a deal. And, I don't expect that MS expects to ever actually implement such a system. But, if the market is ever accepting of this sort of thing, they are now the monopoly holder and so the market is squashed. IMO, patents mostly have two purposes: - - The original purpose is to foster innovation by granting the inventor a temporary monopoly to financially benefit from his idea. - - The secondary side effect purpose of restricting markets and competition by holding patents but never actually implementing them in a product. I lump patent holding companies in this group. Most unfortunately the latter, side effect use is by far the most prevalent today. Alan jdawgaz@cox.net wrote: > this IS a hoax, right? > > > ---- "der.hans" wrote: >> moin moin, >> >> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37568 >> >> Ugh! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFF0NftDQw/VSQuFZYRAlntAJ9xojCYpQrmj1xstv5tFsvE0KjHPwCeO25D Cmhn4D1s0D8O5kvXCtZE+40= =hsrc -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss