This will heighten the distrust of the GPL. (Score 2, Interesting)

The problem with this, besides the fact that the claim is a very broad one which covers software which other people might want to write, is that it perpetuates the idea of the GPL as being like a virus. I happen to agree. The GPL attempts to infect software in such a way that it dictates what an author may or may not do with their own software. You may agree or disagree with this. What this patent case does is far worse. This is *not* a case of a software author having the choice to infect their code with the GPL and make use of someone else's code in their project, or having the choice *not* to infect their code with the GPL and simply write all their own code, or else go find code to use that isn't covered by the GPL. This is about someone who believes in the GPL so much that they want to extend to software they haven't even written. The patent holder wishes to construe his patent so broadly as to force all programmers anywhere who wish to develop certain kinds of software to be covered by the GPL. That is truly bad. I don't personally like the GPL, but I understand that all those who put their software under the GPL have the right to do so, and all those who use software covered by the GPL do so understanding the legal consequences, and that's their freedom of choice. But trying to *force* others to make their software be under the GPL whether they want to or not is truly despotic. Software patents are wrong, whether it's a company like Microsoft trying to force some company under the Microsoft Hegemony, or some GPL fanatic trying to force someone else under the GPL hegemony. I think the supports of Free Software, and the supporters of Open Source software, should stand for, at the very least, personal freedom, and the right of an individual to write code as they see fit and to license it as they see fit. Forceful tendencies are reminiscent of the company practices of some companies which we always seem to portray as the "enemy". Have we become the enemy?