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What Microsoft Doesn't Get - And What I Hope You Do
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft doesn't control it. What it used to be able to do in the dark
| now falls out of its noxious bag of tricks into the Internet's bright
| light, stage front and center. And there stands Microsoft in the
| spotlight, with its pants down, and let me tell you, it's not a pretty
| sight.
|
| Take the failed patent hustle of a couple of days ago, apparently
| maneuvering to enable proxy patent trolls to sue Linux. The idea, I
| gather, was to damage Linux, but without any way to trace it back to
| Microsoft. Thank you OIN and AST for foiling the plan. And by the way,
| are courts supposed to be used like this, to attack the competition? The
| court system is designed for adjudicating conflicts that are real. If you
| get damaged, you can go to court and try to be made whole. And so far as
| I know, there is no definition of abuse of monopoly that would exclude
| what just happened from being part of what antitrust law covers.
|
| Then there is the hypocrisy factor. Ironically, Microsoft's lead attorney
| in the i4i patent litigation was sanctioned by the judge in the
| Memorandum and Order because he persistently argued to the jury that
| patent trolls shouldn't be allowed to seek money damages. And yet, out in
| the back, behind the garage, so to speak, it's "Psst... trolls, wanna buy
| a patent?"
|
| [...]
|
| What won't Miguel do for Microsoft, I ask myself? I take that as good
| news, frankly, as the new foundation wouldn't be needed by Microsoft to
| "supplement" what others already have in place if they could undermine
| what the community already has. So Microsoft funds and runs a new Brand X
| open source foundation which will be entirely under Microsoft's thumb.
| Now do you see the purpose of the GPL? Why the F in FOSS is so vital? If
| all that matters is viewing the code or excellence of code or whatever
| that concept was in the longstanding debate, look what you get:
| Microsoft's Brand X open source foundation to sell you patent licenses to
| proprietary code. An offer they hope you can't refuse. How do you like
| it?
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090911130806414
Software patent game plays out
,----[ Quote ]
| This week, we saw some of the software patent skirmishes that are driving
| and validating this thinking. There was first news that the Open
| Invention Network, the consortium dedicated to legal and IP defense of
| Linux, had bought some software patents that related to Linux, which
| admittedly is not hard to do these days. It turned out the 22 Linux-
| focused patents were purchased from Allied Security Trust, which had
| actually purchased them from none other than Microsoft. This might not
| have meant a whole lot, with OIN proclaiming a victory and Microsoft
| stating simply that the patents did not hold much value to them. However,
| the plot thickened as we heard from FOSS defender Eben Moglen, from Linux
| Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin and from vendor Red Hat, that
| Microsoft may have been shopping the patents around to would-be patent
| trolls who would do the dirty work of FUD on their own.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2009/09/11/software-patent-game-plays-out/
Microsoft Feeds the Trolls
,----[ Quote ]
| An announcement by the Open Invention Network has disclosed publicly for
| the first time another, previously-secret front in our communityâs
| efforts to protect itself against anti-competitive aggression by
| Microsoft. OINâs transaction with Allied Security Trust to buy patents,
| supposedly reading on free software, offered to the troll market by
| Microsoft prevented what could have been a very unpleasant experience for
| the whole free software ecosystem.
|
| Selling patents to organizations that have no purpose except to bring
| litigationâentities which do not themselves make anything or conduct any
| research, which do not indeed contribute in any tangible or intangible
| way to the progress of civilizationâis not standard commercial practice.
| What Microsoft is really doing here is sowing disruption, creating fear,
| uncertainty and doubt at the expense of encouraging the very sort of
| misbehavior in the patent system that hurts everyone in the industry,
| including them.
|
| [...]
|
| Our communityâincluding all developers, distributors and usersâowes Keith
| Bergelt of OIN, and the companies on his board of directors, a round of
| serious thanks for interrupting this arms trade, and calling attention to
| a bad business practice.
`----
http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/blog/2009/09/09#microsoft-and-the-trolls
Open Source Group Buys Microsoft Patents to Ward Off Patent Trolls
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/171589/open_source_group_buys_microsoft_patents_to_ward_off_patent_trolls.html
Recent:
Open Invention Network starts buying patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The Open Invention Network (OIN) today announced that it was starting a new
| programme to acquire patents from "entrepreneurial inventors". The
| Distinguished Inventors Patent Acquisition programme offers cash for accepted
| patents while allowing the inventor to patent enhancements to the accepted
| patent. The OIN believe the programme will help independent inventors turn
| their patents into money, without them selling their patents to patent
| trolls, or companies seeking to "impede innovation".
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/Open-Invention-Network-starts-buying-patents--/news/113918
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