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Re: (News) PCMag: Microsoft Set to Attack Linux with Patents?

  • Subject: Re: (News) PCMag: Microsoft Set to Attack Linux with Patents?
  • From: Kelsey Bjarnason <kbjarnason@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:08:26 -0700
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
  • References: <1824269.4ZjVmDVLvf@schestowitz.com> <k3p0g3-q29.ln1@dog.did.it> <pan.2006.04.02.22.03.56.148877@gmail.com> <1351933.DP6ptUZrq0@schestowitz.com>
  • User-agent: Pan/0.14.2.91 (As She Crawled Across the Table (Debian GNU/Linux))
  • Xref: news.mcc.ac.uk comp.os.linux.advocacy:1097210
[snips]

On Mon, 03 Apr 2006 00:20:55 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:

>> MS could be digging their own graves with this.
> 
> Remember all the BSD stuff that is/was incorporated into Windows? I am not
> too  familiar  with  the  legal issues surrounding this,  but  this  could
> develop into something very interesting and complex.

IIRC, that was one of the fundamental philosophical differences between
"free software" and "open source".  The one - BSD-licensing - allowed
anyone to snarf the code and do as they damn well please with it,
including bundling it in closed commercial apps, whereas the other
required that the code remain open.

If, in fact, BSD-licensed code did work this way, as memory suggests,
there's bugger all they can do about MS using it that way - that was what
the license allowed.

> Microsoft  will  not  put the cards on the table before  they  ponder
> and assess  the outcome of such a legal battle.

You mean, they won't SCO? :)

I'd be surprised if they actually did consider it.  Or, rather, I'd be
surprised if they didn't consider it, decide it was worth the risk, then
get handed their hats from some relatively unexpected quarter.



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