Open source wins another day in court
,----[ Quote ]
| The reason I was disappointed was the validation of the RIAA’s strategy,
| which goes well beyond education and pursuit of egregious offenders and
| burdens privacy, Internet service providers and others. When I was writing
| about the SCO Group’s claims and lawsuits against big Linux users in 2004,
| there were parallels to what the RIAA was doing.
|
| [...]
|
| Would it mean that broad, vague claims could be brought against a wide swath
| of individual consumers to make them face the full force of a company’s legal
| maneuvering and extreme financial penalties in the courts? Could this
| embolden Microsoft to consider the upside of such a strategy against open
| source users?
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2007/10/05/open-source-wins-another-day-in-court/
Microsoft "regrets patent deal" tactics
,----[ Quote ]
| There'll be a continuing spread of FUD as it tries to make customers nervous.
| Open source is a genuine competitor now and it's found a tactic to deal with
| that competitor, but I think the threat is diminishing."
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/127079/microsoft-regrets-patent-deal-tactics.html
Regret? Pretending to want peace after doing the damage (not just to Linux, but
also to their own reputation and image)?
Related:
Linux group calls Microsoft's bluff
,----[ Quote ]
| OIN chief executive Jerry Rosenthal told vnunet.com that Microsoft's
| assertions are simply an attempt to undermine the open source movement.
|
| Rosenthal added that it is time for Microsoft to reveal the patents that are
| supposedly being infringed, or to drop the claims.
|
| "The FUD is clear. If you have a patent that you are proud of, then disclose
| it," he said.
|
| [...]
|
| Mark Taylor, president of the Open Source Consortium, agreed with Rosenthal
| and described Microsoft's tactics in damning terms.
|
| "We say show us the patents," he told vnunet.com. "This has been the strategy
| against open source all along. It's precisely the same tactics as SCO used:
| implied threats and mafia techniques. This is just FUD. It's smoke and
| mirrors. "
`----
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2200498/oin-calls-microsoft-bluff
Microsoft too busy to name Linux patents
,----[ Quote ]
| First you get everyone riled claiming open source and Linux infringe on
| your patents, then you won’t detail those patents. Why? The paperwork.
|
| Yes, Microsoft cited administrative overhead for not detailing the 235
| Microsoft patents its chief legal counsel recently told Forbes exist in
| Linux and open source.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/24/microsoft_novell_patents/
Shuttleworth: Microsoft Fracturing the Open-Source Community
,----[ Quote ]
| "That's extortion and we should call it what it is," he said. "To say, as
| [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet
| liability, that's just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that
| game. On the other side, if Microsoft is concerned about its intellectual
| property, there is no one in the free software community that wants to
| violate anyone's IP. Disclose the patents and we'll fix the code.
| Alternatively, move on."
|
| Microsoft has said it does disclose which patents are being violated, but
| only in one-on-one conversations with vendors. To Shuttleworth, that is not
| disclosure, because patents are public documents.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2167193,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
[Mark Shuttleworth Interview]
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won't
| say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: "It's an
| unsafe neighbourhood, why don't you pay me 20 bucks and I'll make
| sure you're okay," that's illegal. It's racketeering. What Microsoft
| is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It's a great
| company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a
| well considered position.
|
| So you wouldn't do a deal?
|
| No, absolutely not. But the time will come when the folks at
| Microsoft who have a clear vision for the company as a participant
| in this community, rather than as a hostile antagonist, will win.
`----
http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6672
|
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