Mark Shuttleworth's Stance on Mono Inside Ubuntu
,----[ Quote ]
| Mark Shuttleworth tells us that his main concern is not Microsoft and Mono,
| but rather it's the patent trolls
`----
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/02/22/mark-shuttleworth-on-patents/
A lot of good links on this latest announcement he refers to here:
links for 2008-02-21
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| “The European Commission has expressed doubt regarding Microsoft’s
| announcement Thursday claiming a move toward greater interoperability.”
|
| [...]
|
| “Microsoft made major concessions Thursday that should make it easier for
| open-source software to dovetail with or even replace Microsoft products, but
| a major caveat means the company’s legal threats remain alive and well.”
|
| [...]
|
| “The European Committee For Interoperable Systems said it will take a wait
| and see approach in determining whether the changes will alleviate its
| concerns.”
|
| [...]
|
| What the heck exactly is “non-commercial” use of open source? Hobbyists?
|
| [...]
|
| “I expect that there it is no coincidence that this announcement comes just
| two business days (and only one, for most of the world) before the Ballot
| Resolution Meeting convenes in Geneva next Monday.”
|
| [...]
|
| “Microsoft is really pulling out all the stops to make sure OOXML gets the
| ISO standards nod. Losing lucrative government contracts here and abroad that
| require “open” standards would be no financial joke for the company.”
`----
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=2067
Related:
Who is the world's biggest patent troll?
,----[ Quote ]
| In two consecutive days, The Wall Street Journal presented two different
| answers. The first is not surprising: Intellectual Ventures, the brainchild
| of ex-Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It's now out "to raise as much as
| $1 billion to help develop and patent inventions, many of them from
| universities in Asia."
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9816163-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Cyberlaw OOXML Seminar 14 December
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| However, this raises the issue - what assurance does a developer have that
| such a large specification is not the subject of third party patent claims?
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| The pedigree of the specification is certainly no reason for hope, Microsoft
| has been the target of third party patent claims for some time now including
| some high profile losses in patent suits. The fact that the specification has
| been developed behind closed doors and on a fast track means that there has
| been no adequate opportunity to evaluate the likelihood of third party patent
| claims against the specifications. The sheer size of the document suggests
| there will be at least a couple hiding in there somewhere.
`----
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/cyberlaw-ooxml-seminar-14-december/
A Patent Lie
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
,----[ Quote ]
| ...Thanks to Mr. Gates, we now know that an open Internet with protocols
| anyone can implement is communism...
|
| ...Mr. Gates' secret is out now--he too was a "communist;" he, too,
| recognized that software patents were harmful-until Microsoft
| became one of these giants...
`----
http://news.com.com/Bill+Gates+and+other+communists/2010-1071_3-5576230.html?part=rss&tag=5575731&subj=news.1071.20
EU and Microsoft gang up on the GPL
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| 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
|
|
