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[News] One Patent Troll/'Patent Terrorist' (Microsoft) Stung by Another, Attacks Linux with Patents

  • Subject: [News] One Patent Troll/'Patent Terrorist' (Microsoft) Stung by Another, Attacks Linux with Patents
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:49:08 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
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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