Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment

Long, fascinating (for me, anyway) post by Jim Farmer on Michael Feldstein's e-Literate, summarising the current state of "play" between Blackboard and Desire2Learn. You get the impression that several parties are on the hook in different ways. Desire2Learn, most obviously; a substantial number of Desire2Learn's clients in the US, who, to be free of risk will need to start using the revised (non infringing) version 8.3 of Desire2Learn's software, which may or may not be as functional as the (infringing) earlier version (this assumes that the revised version will not itself be judged to infringe); and Blackboard, which, without a settlement with Desire2Learn, will struggle to avoid being seen as the author of the misfortune of those Desire2Learn clients (and their students), as well as having used a software patent (viewed by many as dubious) to put the squeeze on its main non Open Source competitor.