Gates has presumably retained some council of this sort of persuasion. “Let’s draft a license for all IP pertaining to the Internet and see if it sticks or if anyone challenges us. If people sign it, then we can claim we own it an can modify these standards or otherwise challenge the standards bodies. Hmmm. Sounds like a good idea. When can we post a draft for the most gullible to sign?”

The Internet standards bodies ought to take him to task on this one. Heck, Apple and Xerox should take him to task, as should the Dod and half of the other entities that were responsible for the IP related to the Internet. Next, Gates will claim he invented the GUI…oops he already tried that and lost that suit. Perhaps he will claim he invented the browser…oops, someone already beat him to that. How about Javascript…nope Sun got him there. Ethernet…nope, that would be Xerox. And, on and on the list goes. How gullible does Microsoft lawyers think the world is? Especially after they have been losing so many suits…Novell’s most recent to the tune of 1/2 a billion. Well, they have some $60 billion in reserves to fight off a challenge. Wonder if a few IP lawyers would take it on for a percentage of the $60B?

“Al Gore never said he invented the internet. Repeating it over and over doesn’t make it so. If this is typical of your information gathering I have to assume that the rest of what is printed here is suspect as well.”

Dear Mr. Kladel,

Aunty’s reference to the rumour that Mr. Gore claimed to invent the Internet was a tongue-in-cheek reference to an incident in our collective cultural memory.

Remember, a healthy sense of irony is your friend.

Well, apparently not.

Kissy kissy,

Aunty

Chevy or Ford?