Blackboard, Inc. Patented!

[fos]

Blackboard, Inc. has received a patent for e-learning. This is another blow for open source software. It would appear that they received the patent for the concept rather than the coding. I have no idea how this will impact open source educational software such as Moodle.

If countries continue to award patents for software concepts, the oss movement may become a thing of the past.

You can read the article at: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060827/D8JOULSG0.html

fos....

[bluesdog]

Well, the fat lady hasn't sung yet!

My bet is if Blackboard's patent claim is simply outrageous, it will be defeated.

Imagine if Gutenberg had patented the concept of printing?

[fos]

Here is a site dedicated to boycotting Blackboard:

http://www.boycottblackboard.org/index.php

I am already taking an online universite course on object oriented programming. The instructor requires that all asignments be turned in using MS Word. :(

It is funny though that they posted a C++ compiler for windows based on gnu gcc. How convenient!

fos....

[danieldk]

Nobody really likes Blackboard here at the university.

Turning in C++ excercises in a Word file is rediculous. After the holiday (read from next week on), I am going to follow this course:

http://www.icce.rug.nl/edu/

The nice thing is that the course reader is also available (in English), it's very good:

http://www.icce.rug.nl/documents/cplusplus/

[fos]

I don't like Blackboard at all. I was asked to look into a setup for a school. I found adminstration cumbersome and configuration options very limited. I particularly dislike have to use it to take an online course. In addition, it is very expensive, on the order of $8.50 per student per semester with large blocks of students.

They are using MS type tactics, buying up the competition and suing others.

fos...

PS. Thanks for the links, that looks like it will be a very nice course.

[fos]

Patent office makes a positive move! (From: http://lwn.net)

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ordered re-examination of the e-learning patent owned by Blackboard Inc. in response to a request from the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). "SFLC, provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, had filed the request in November on behalf of Sakai, Moodle, and ATutor, three open source educational software projects. The Patent Office found that prior art cited in SFLC's request raises "a substantial new question of patentability" regarding all 44 claims of Blackboard's patent."

[jml]

That's reassuring. Lets hope the patent office does the right thing.

Joe

[fos]

// 2/1/07

"LinuxWorld covers a pledge from courseware vendor Blackboard to not enforce its patents against open source and homegrown software systems."

Then why did they go to all the trouble and expense to obtain the patent?

fos

[fos]

From LWN.net 2/28/07:



The UK Government has responded (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page11077.asp) to a petition (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/softwarepatents/) regarding software patents. "The Government remains committed to its policy that no patents should exist for inventions which make advances lying solely in the field of software. Although certain jurisdictions, such as the US, allow more liberal patenting of software-based inventions, these patents cannot be enforced in the UK." (Thanks to dave)



The US should be so reasonable.....



fos