Timeline wins $5M from Microsoft in patent settlement
,----[ Quote
| According to Timeline's SEC filing last week, Microsoft agreed to pay
| Timeline $5 million within 14 days as part of the settlement. Timeline, which
| describes itself as a "company ... solely focused on commercializing its
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| patent portfolio," had sued the Redmond computer giant and its subsidiary
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| ProClarity Corp. for patent infringement.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/071022/1538829.html?.v=1
The sharks at Microsoft are up to dirty tricks again....
Microsoft Posts the New License Terms for Interoperability in the EU Agreement
,----[ Quote
| Lordy, there is always a "The GPL Need Not Apply" clause in everything
| Microsoft does. In this case, it's mutual and no GPL folks will be applying
| for that license. Maybe it's a good thing that no cash strapped vendors can
| be tempted. But it does mean, whether the EU Commission realizes it yet or
| not that Microsoft's number one competitor, Linux, is completely unable to be
| interoperable with Microsoft's patented code. I'm curious as to how that is
| helpful to the public who wish to have a choice.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007102408501134
FSF cleans up...
GnuTLS Release Removes TLS Authorization Due to Patent Issue
,----[ Quote
| GnuTLS, which released version 2.0.2 last week, removed the TLS Authorization
| capability, due in part to an effort to circumvent the IETF standardization
| process.
`----
http://blue-gnu.biz/content/gnutls_release_removes_tls_authorization_due_patent_issue
Related:
EU and Microsoft gang up on the GPL
,----[ Quote
| The future of open source and free software will look like this: first,
| Microsoft will pump money into its franchiseware economy and get very little
| back. Second, IBM will do the same with its own franchiseware economy (the
| Apache Foundation) and get a lot more back, because IBM actually understand
| how this works. Last, all remaining projects will move to the GPL, with a few
| exceptions. And it's that economy, the one based on formal copyleft licenses,
| and backed by increasing determination to litigate and defend against
| litigation, that will prevail.
|
| Like every actor that thinks it's conducting the orchestra, Microsoft is as
| much a puppet of circumstance as any one of us.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-24101/opinion:eu-and-microsoft-gang-up-on-the-gpl
Opinion: behind the Acacia suit
,----[ Quote ]
| It's a neat structure. Pump money into Acacia so it can attack Red Hat, and
| at the same time prove to the world how strong the Microsoft patent shield
| really is against those naughty, naughty trolls.
|
| If this works with Acacia, perhaps we can expect a scaled-up attack by
| Intellectual Ventures on Linux users like Google and IBM.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-24106/opinion:behind-the-acacia-suit
Half A Loaf
,----[ Quote ]
| Yes, open source will have access to the interoperability information
| on "reasonable" terms (ask independent open source developers how many can
| afford to cough up the $15,000 such access will cost), but nothing in this
| statement indicates the Commission has overcome Microsoft's "refusa[al] to
| make the [patent] licence compatible with the open source business model." In
| fact, we can expect that nothing about that patent license will be compatible
| with the most widely used open source license, the GNU General Public
| License.
`----
http://walkingwithelephants.blogspot.com/2007/10/half-loaf.html
EU tells open source to start paying MS patent tax
,----[ Quote ]
| EU Commissioner Kroes' deal with Microsoft creates real dangers to Europe's
| growing open source economy, warns the FFII. Using patent licenses that
| exclude businesses, the software monopolist has turned the EU competition
| ruling into a victory, and now gets implicit support from the Commission to
| proceed aggressively against its competitors.
`----
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EU_tells_open_source_to_start_paying_MS_patent_tax
Late night baseball games, Microsoft concessions evoke big yawns at open source
water cooler
,----[ Quote ]
| It will benefit purveyors of proprietary software but not open source
| developers, agreed Michael Goulde, analyst of open source strategy at
| Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. “Some open source developers believe
| that Microsoft should make its protocols available for use royalty free. In
| some cases, there are open source license restrictions that make it not
| possible for the software to include Microsoft licensed code – because you
| can’t downstream the license. So, unless Microsoft goes way beyond what it
| has agreed with the EU to do, only a subset of open source developers will
| have much interest. They’ll continue reverse engineering Microsoft protocols
| and doing the best they can."
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1582
Let's Make a Deal - The MS-EU Settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| The patent part is terrible. Worse than terrible. They are not blocked from
| offering patent deals, only constrained as to how much to charge for a
| license, which is not and never was the issue. So they'll beef up those
| initiatives, I'm sure. However, the good part is that they were compelled to
| separate the patent license offer out and make it optional. Thanks, but no
| thanks.
|
| [...]
|
| I'm guessing Microsoft lawyers are high fiving each other, having snatched an
| important victory from utter and total defeat. The rest is excellent, of
| course, and in no way do I mean to detract from the hard work and persistence
| that the EU Commission has shown. However, I don't think they understand how
| seriously broken the US patent system is currently, and how easy it is to
| abuse it, or they don't feel it's their job to fix the US problems, or how
| central patents are to Microsoft's current strategy against FOSS.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071022114731199
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