Microsoft Withdraws Linux NTFS Threats

An Anonymous Coward writes: "http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/this-week/0084.html has a post by one of the developers working on NTFS utilities for Linux, stating that Microsoft has dropped legal threats against them and apologized. Therefore, development of these NTFS utilities will continue." Our previous story was here.

Comments

Huh?

[zpengo]

Microsoft apologized?

I think that this, in addition to recent outburst of repeated posts, is a clear indication that the editors of /. have had a *long* week and are getting delirious.

Email.

[laserjet]

"Microsoft has threatened us with litigation due to our support of Linux NTFS development, and we have dissolved our NTFS licensing agreements with Microsoft...," Merkley wrote in one of his e-mails. Merkey said he has no idea how it happened, but their e-mails first were posted on an Internet weekly Linux newsletter and reposted Tuesday on Slashdot.org. " Hmm... Possibly because email is not the secure communications medium that everyone thinks it is. I would consider a cordless phone safer than email for confidential communications - at least its broadcast does not go over a quarter mile or so.

I just think it's funny that emails are often times a culprit for the media to strike. Lord knows Microsoft has sent a few emails that they did not want to get out to the public... All it takes is one person and the forward button...

NTFS

[GigsVT]

Well this makes sense for MS, because it allows NTFS to live on, no matter how big linux gets. Really these people are writing something that MS should be writing. Its going to make an MS product easier to use in a mixed environment.

MS just realized it a way to get free innovation. :)
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Don't Believe the Conspiracy Theories

[rabtech]

In a big corporation, such as Microsoft, IBM, etc..., the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing sometimes. Things can get skewed out of proportion and bad managers make stupid decisions. Don't make a bigger deal than it is... instead, praise Microsoft when they do something right. Send them emails saying you are glad they are making the correct decisions. Lord knows they get enough flak when they make the wrong ones. If you really want to see things change, TELL the companies when they are pleasing you, not just when they screw up!
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I think they called Microsoft's bluff

[leereyno]

With the outcome of the anti-trust case still uncertain, the last thing that Microsoft needs is bad publicity. If they were to actually sue someone for trying to improve Linux's NTFS compatibility, it would be nothing but bad publicity. It would also reinforce the government's case against them in the public eye.

I like to think that the NTFS developers knew this and simply told Microsoft where to stick it. That's certainly what I would have done. Microsoft, seeing that attempts at intimidation had backfired, knew there was nothing they could really do that wouldn't cost them more than it was worth in the long run. So they backed down and "apologized" before the situation turned into a PR disaster.

One of the most effective tools anyone can use against a company like Microsoft is a good publicist. Someone who knows how to attract the attention of the media and therefore the public is every bit as frightening to a corporation like Microsoft as its lawyers are to everyone else.

Microsoft may or may not lose their legal appeal. However they've already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. Win or lose in court, business as usual is over for them.

Lee Reynolds

Re:I think they called Microsoft's bluff

[Phexro]

"It would also reinforce the government's case against them in the public eye."

maybe it's the pessimist in me thinking, but who are you kidding? most of the public doesn't care. they know that microsoft is the company that makes windows, office and ie. ms has worked very hard to maintain their public image as the kind, loving company that gives you windows. and for the most part, it has worked. in the eyes of the public, msft has more credibility than the naysayers who point out it's missteps.

unless, by "public eye", you mean the slashdot readership. and it's not like we need more evidence to believe that msft is in the wrong.
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How this was won-maybe

[64.28.67.48]

Merkey said Norman described the fracas as "an apparent miscommunication. Andshe also said 'please don't post those e-mails.' "

This suggests that if "those e-mails" had not been posted, MS would not be backing off. The internet hasn't changed the state of intellectual property (as some might think) where companies are now trying to take away the rights of every independent hacker or developer. They always have. It's just that every piddling lawsuit that large corporations file, every cease-and-desist, every vague threatening letter from their law firms, is now posted far and wide. These things have always been going on, but we never heard about them. Microsoft knows that if every time they threaten anyone, it will be all over the net, they will look even worse than they do now (and maybe they realize more now than before how bad that can be for them).

So keep posting them! If their lawyer tells you not to, it ain't 'cause it's in YOUR best interest.

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Slashdot Poll Suggestion

[PollMastah]

Poll: Slashdot is mostly run by:

1. Clueless posters who post Slashdot dogma and think that's what it means to be "Insightful".
2. Clueless moderators who mod up Slashdot dogma conforming posters
3. Equally clueless moderators who mod up appropriately labelled, non-conforming posts as Insightful just because it's different from the other posts
4. Karma whores
5. The trolls
6. CmdrTaco

(Hint: the last option, although it looks like the usual obligatory nonsense choice, isn't actually nonsensical :-P)