-----Original message----- From: Christopher Svanefalk <christopher.svanef...@gmail.com> Sent: Wed 01-08-2012 10:48 Subject: Re: criminal use of linux To: Community support for Fedora users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org>; > Best, > > Christopher Svanefalk > > > > On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 5:13 PM, Jack Craig <jack.craig.ap...@gmail.com > <mailto:jack.craig.ap...@gmail.com> > wrote: > Typical M$ thinking, and within recent history, SCO!! > > Thing did not go very well for SCO in the end. > > Why is this not being brought into a courtroom, rather than companies just > paying licenses?
It is frequently the case that even a successful defense against a patent lawsuit costs more than licensing a bogus patent. Furthermore, there is a non-zero probability of losing said lawsuit, with costs that would significantly exceed the costs of a license. So if w is the cost of a license p is the probability of losing a lawsuit z is the probability of a lawsuit even being filed x is the cost of defending the lawsuit and winning and y is the cost of defending the lawsuit and losing if w < z(py + (1-p)x) w < z(p(y-x) + x) Then it makes sense to just settle. Some firms may make a more conservative estimation of p than others. Some firms believe that y and x are quite close, and much larger than w - which means the probability of winning or losing doesn't really matter. Some firms assume z is 1 - a lawsuit is inevitable. -- users mailing list users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
