[dhimes]

Thank God. I didn't realize UCal had a stake in this. WTF? Don't they know better?

[tingletech]

FAQ and press release from the settlement with Microsoft

http://www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2003/aug11art1qanda.htm

http://www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2003/aug11art1.htm

Looks like the UC is not really so directly involved anymore; just taking it's cut from a patent it owns part of by virtue of the fact it owns part of its employees' inventions.

[tikhonj]

My understanding is that the person holding the patents in question came up with the "invention" while employed by UCSF.

Amusingly, ViolaWWW, one of the pieces of prior art used by the defendants, was written by a Berkeley student.

[a_a_r_o_n]

That settles it, we'd better not let students write code, in case that code invalidates patents produced by students' code.

[wmf]

It may be that they can't back out of their deal. Let's not be too quick to burn them in effigy.

[koenigdavidmj]

That would strike me as worthy of a black mark by the industry---a statement that we will not hire your students if you back this stuff.

[redthrowaway]

That would be an overreach, and unfairly punish some eminently-qualified grads from Berkeley and the like. I would, however, like to see some of the big boys boycott a career fair, or simply set up a stand with no attendant and a poster reading, "UC Berkeley tried to blackmail us and hold the web hostage. In response, we will not be attending this career fair." Then let the students put pressure on the administration to perform a cranio-anal extraction.

[impendia]

Find the right people in Cal's middle management, cold call them, and complain to them.

Also, find out who has donated large amounts of money, cold call them too, and complain to them also.