Following up on Microsoft's announcement the other day that they would be launching patent-infringement lawsuits against several open source projects, we have a new development: according to PC Magazine, the Free Software Foundation, the activist arm of the open source movement, has launched a campaign to inform the public about the evils of stifling software development through patents. They are supported in this effort by the Open Invention Network, which is striving to find the balance between intellectual property protection and open source innovation.

Who's in the right here? Unfortunately, as is usually the case, both sides have compelling arguments. We'll continue following the developments of this story as they happen, but I have feeling the end result will be some sort of settlement that Microsoft will use to force changes on the software market. Hopefully those changes won't mean negative things for the market as a whole.