RE: [DotGNU]On Fighting patents

[Brent Fulgham]

> Even independant of the pantent threats, all ideas that get
> written down ought to be posted for discussion, because that
> helps to move the project forward.
> 
> I agree that using a Free Documentation license for this is a
> very good idea.
> 

Most people are probably aware that AOL and Microsoft are at
the start of a fairly cut-throat battle for growth, with
Microsoft attempting to leverage their desktop dominance into
control internet commerce, and AOL likewise attempting to
retain their status at Microsoft's expense.

Perhaps we could make use of this by attempting to get AOL to
'partner' with DotGNU by promising to maintain compatibility
with DotGNU's various services, and to allow and perhaps
provide running instances of various DotGNU services, so that
DotGNU wins by leveraging AOL's network might, and AOL wins
by getting a Microsoft-free work-alike system to work with.

AOL has been fairly open to Free Software work in the past,
releasing the AOLserver under a user-choice NPG/GPL combination.

-Brent