I don’t think I’ve once strayed from the tradition of referencing the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, nor is my life exciting enough for me to lead that start. Strange also is the fact that I write on just about two things - technology and the economy. I have come to the conclusion that I’m somewhat of a boring person, so when I ran across this image of two rather gloomy gentlemen, naturally I thought of linking the article following: i4i won a huge victory. But at what cost?. Well, I suppose I will take my last statement back, since Mr. Owen is smiling - after all, he had just won a $290-million lawsuit against Microsoft.

One of the comments I spotted below the article is as thus:
“After reading this, I’m not sure why anyone should feel guilty about downloading or sharing unlicensed versions of Word and other Microsoft products. If they don’t obey the law, why should we?”

My thoughts, originally on the economic implications of such a patent ruling (Microsoft is to permanently remove all i4i technology from its products), but this comment led me more into thinking about the ambiguous grey shades of modern day ethics. It reminded me, suddenly, of this image. I have never gotten into the habit of embedding pictures on this blog, and since this one has some rather crude (but mainstream nonetheless) language I will refrain from varying that trend.

Anyhow, back to our Microsoft woes. Do we really feel sympathetic towards a software giant that semi-monopolizes the world PC market? I myself, for one, is hardly acquainted with anyone that has actually purchased Microsoft products. The same goes for Adobe, and probably a few other application suites I can’t think of at the moment. Does Microsoft’s decision to (perhaps?) pilot XML technology without paying for the patent license justify our actions in (let’s be honest here) pirating software together, are commercially worth thousands of dollars? It sounds to me like we’re trying to make a right with two wrongs. That, or capital punishment, more or less. And… in the end, no one has been justified, except perhaps i4i, for providing with us yet another “Microsoft owned” anecdote for generation(s?) to come.