[ILUG] Interesting article in the Economist this week...

[Braun Brelin]

Hello all,

I was reading the latest Economist magazine last night.  There was an
interesting article, ostensibly about the merger of Adobe and
Macromedia.  However, a couple of interesting points came home:

According to the article, Adobe originally sued Macromedia.  Why do
so?  The article states:

"Bruce Chizen, Adobe's boss, sued Macromedia.  There was no particular
reason for the lawsuit , he recalls, but he had been irked for some
time that Macromedia...had appeared to be embarassing the much bigger
Adobe...Mr Chizen's people found an obscure patent that Macromedia was
probably infringing upon and took it to court. The idea was 'to slow
them down a bit' smirks Mr. Chizen."

Although this doesn't (sadly) surprise me, it's a startling admission.
 Perhaps those of you who read this newsgroup and also lobby the
TD's/MEP's can use this as ammunition against software patents.

The article is also on the Economist's web site, however, it's
subscription only.

Braun