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Blackboard promises not to sue open-source software makers
Blackboard Inc., "leading provider of enterprise technology to the education community," has given their support to open-source and homegrown course management software that might infringe on a patent they received last year. In their press release the company vows to "never assert its issued or pending course management software patents against open source software or home-grown course management systems. The Blackboard Pledge is legally binding, irrevocable and worldwide in scope, giving open source software makers comfort in knowing Blackboard isn't going to sue you. (Read the full statement here.)
Blackboard creates the software used for e-learning in a good deal of our U.S. high schools as well as colleges and universities. Last year they received a patent on their technology that was met with a great deal of backlash from the education community who felt that the patent was "an attempt to own the very idea of online learning" and felt they might be sued by the company if they created their own software to be used for coursework.
Blackboards pledge gives those professors and schools the opportunity to create their own software without the fear of being pursued by the company, however Blackboard has vowed to continue to go after their major competitor. Even with their statement of support many feel Blackboard should never have been awarded a patent on the technology in the first place.
[via TechNewsWorld]
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentssyntheseziaFeb 5th 2007 1:07PM
My college uses blackboard but the damn thing never works right. It always logs us in as the wrong accounts, which is seriously annoying.
But what about this? "however Blackboard has vowed to continue to go after their major competitor"
What happenes when an open source alternative is their nearest competitor?
SiFeb 5th 2007 6:23PM
Isn't this a bit like Sony getting a patent on displaying moving images, and then saying they won't go after anyone who decides to build a light box? The fact that patent was granted in the first place is pathetic and shows the absurdity of patent laws.
And for the record, I used BlackBoard a few years ago when I did my degree and, coming from someone who specialises in Web Apps, its one of the worst applications, web or otherwise, I've ever had the misfortune of encountering. You get the impression usability, reliability, stability and integrity are words that they simply have never heard of. Unfortunately its often the finance and admin departments that buy the software, not the users or even the IT departments (the IR department were some of the more vocal opposers). It go to the point where any capable lecturer would use their own site to manage their module anyway. Not that the quality of software makes any difference in case of absurd patent law.
SKIFeb 5th 2007 4:03PM
My school uses Smartboards with Quizdom stuff so the class can play baseball. It's a fun way to learn stupid things you should already know (I'm a senior and we are doing like 4th grade crap because the teachers are testing it because it's new).
SKIFeb 5th 2007 4:02PM
There are other games besides baseball but it's my favorite.
This is the makers:
http://www.qwizdom.com/index2.php
http://smarttech.com/
CBFeb 5th 2007 7:41PM
"Unfortunately its often the finance and admin departments that buy the software, not the users or even the IT departments (the IR department were some of the more vocal opposers)."
As a former employee of a huge online university (starts with a K), I can attest that this is 100% true. We had our own CMS that was suddenly "replaced" with an outsourced 3rd party service. We had to jump through all kinds of hoops to integrate it with our existing stuff, and it was (is) really crappy and unreliable to boot.
Your comments about usability, reliability, stability and integrity are spot-on for most educational software. I guess as they say, those that can, do. Those that can't... write CMS software.