Re: The greed of banks
No, this is the other way round. Patent trolls, sorry, PAEs, have invented nothing, they bought up patents "going cheap", when the inventor either went bust or needed a cash injection and sold off their patents. These entities then go around taking pot-shots at companies in the hope they will capitulate and license the patents they bought.
I'm guessing that the banks are using a lot of Linux and open source databases etc. on their back-ends and are being approached by patent trolls to get them to cover the use of Linux on their servers, plus bespoke software for certain common banking tasks.
With "real" patent holders, you can often go into a cross-licensing agreement, but with a PAE, they only want money, because the only thing they "make" is money through licensing their dodgy patents.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
