It has been reported today on digg and everywhere else about Microsoft cracking down on Free and Open Software with a lawsuit. They claim that Linux and the likes infringe on more than 200 of their patents and want to collect royalty!

Patenting is a concept that it not so easily applied to things like computer algorithms or ideas. Richard Stallman in his talk on patents (see video) mentions that a patent office clerk gets several hours to cross-check if a new patent application infringes on already existing ones. He gives many insightful and unfortunate examples of when this time is not enough. There are so many things patented out there and they are so complex and sometimes vaguely described that chances are that any existing patent is infringing on somebodies rights. There is just not enough man power to find this out!

Open-source is a good model for many people contributing a portion of their time to a common goal. I propose to create an open-source group whose task would be find out all the holes in microsoft's patents to be used in a counter-suit.

Fight back, this is our only chance to save free software!