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My interpretation of the EDUCAUSE et al. letter is a bit different, though it is certainly open to argument.

Although it appears that EDUCAUSE and Sakai decided to find a solution focused on its own members, my reading of this is that EDUCAUSE and Sakai are going to rely on the patent re-examination process. Perhaps they thought that to reiterate their call for Bb to drop their suit with D2L and disclaim their rights at this point would be rubbing it in their (Bb's) faces.

As far as D2L being left in the cold, they're not the only ones out there if my reading of the pledge is correct. Any home-grown CMS which has been used by more than one institution and which is not specifically listed in the pledge is still "fair game". And, since Bb retains the right to revoke the pledge, anyone (including EDUCAUSE and Sakai) is fair game is Bb chooses to change its mind IMO.

D2L is alone in the sense of being the sole target of a lawsuit at present; perhaps there's not much more that EDUCAUSE et al. could do to support them at this point, at least overtly. But I don't see Bb gaining anything positive from EDUCAUSE's announcement; all it does is stem the bleeding IMO. And I don't see D2L as being abandoned. But I guess we'll see how it actually plays out from here...

Interesting that Blackboard included Elgg in their list of open source systems that they won't sue. There is nothing in Blackboard's spurious claim that is remotely related to Elgg's functions. Elgg doesn't even have a "course" feature.

I agree that the prior art argument is so strong that Blackboard's patent is completely unsubstantiated. Hopefully the patent review will confirm this.

Thanks for this comment Harold. In relation to your second point: hope is one thing; confidence another. I doubt things will be that simple. And even if they are, it will take time. Seb - 5/2/2007.

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