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Ballmer Threatens Linux Patent Lawsuits
gillbates writes "Today Microsoft warned several Asian countries that using Linux could subject them to lawsuits, claiming that Linux violates '228 patents'. Apparently, Steve Ballmer believes he can enforce U.S. law in Asia." Ballmer is presumably speaking about this story. So, companies which sell insurance against lawsuits and companies which make competing products both warn of the dangers of using Linux. Maybe someone should point out that Microsoft is battling dozens of patent-infringement lawsuits itself, and any user of Microsoft software (including governments) could also be sued?
There's the problem. Microsoft has someone to do that. "Someone" who is willing to send out threatening letters to MS product users on behalf of the OpenSource community will be hard to find (or hard to pay for)
Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.
Keep in mind that China is a Communist country and any concept of intellectual property is relatively novel.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
The US could complain to the WTO or somebody, but they are toothless. China is too big to start a trade war with.
Poland just recently decided against supporting software patents in the EU. Does that mean they will not respect other countries' patents on software or just that they will not go along with Europe issuing them?
Hilarious. That is like saying "I am the strongest man in the world because I have brown hair, I wear shoes, and I am standing here right now."
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
You can't make money if no ones buying because they think you and your company is an ass.
By indemnified, I believe they mean that their customers will not be sued by other companies for using MS products. MS would be sued, and be required to pay up or make the required changes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no MS fanboy, but lets be clear about it. I don't think any company can safely claim to be 100% in the clear when it comes to patents. Not in the world we live in...
They're not out to make friends. They're out to make money.
They're making a big effort to become the de facto software company in Asia, like they are in the U.S. and Europe. That's why they're making their software available at lower prices in stripped-down versions. In most parts of Asia, you don't have to justify NOT buying MS software - as you do here. That's what MS is trying to build in Asia. They are trying to make "friends" among businesses like they have here. That is the best way for them to make money.
But, as I wrote in my previous post, I think this tactic may be too aggressive and backfire by putting people off. At least I hope people won't buckle to a show of trumped-up muscle. If they truly decided MS software is what's best for them, more power to them. But I hope they won't be scared into buying it. And I don't think they will.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
I think M$ is planning this as a last ditch. I think they are being very wary of how they approach Linux as a competitor in hopes that suits like SCO's will stifle Linux. Now that it's becoming obvious that SCO's suit isn't likely to succeed, they are hedging their bets with patents. I think this could ultimately backfire on them even if they hold these patents. Prior art is one aspect they aren't figuring on. Another is the fact that Linux is being adopted by a lot of companies and governments. To go into court in, say, 3-4 years and try to sue bsed on these patents might not sit well with a judge. Especially some of the more silly patents. They could come off as looking like they let the patents go unchallenged and simply enforced them in an effort to stifle competition. Whatever the case, having IBM, Novell, and more big companies backing Linux is only going to help.
I don't think the point is enforcing U.S. law in Asia so much as it's forcing an Asian company to comply with U.S. law if they want to do business in the U.S. or with a U.S. company.
People and companies outside the U.S. have legal action taken against them in U.S. courts all the time. While they can't necessarily do anything to that person/company in their own country, they can effect the status of that person/company with regards to dealings in and with the U.S. In layman's terms, that person/company is put on the shit list.
Evil is the money of root.
Okay fine! If you're not our customer, prepare to be sued for it!
While I generally take legal threats and action fairly seriously, my knee-jerk reaction is that Microsoft will be laughed out of the arena on this one. This would be a persuit that would turn the public against them. I can see the IBM propaganda commercials on TV now. They'd be depicting a hobbyist writing making something in their garage or basement followed quickly by a SWAT team with guns pointed at his head.
While it's true that business has taken a natural interest in Linux. It's free, it's reliable, it's flexible, it's customizable and it's everywhere and simply growing and growing. It can't be stopped. Anything that Microsoft does againt the users of Linux will certainly make them look even more evil in the public's eye than ever before.
Public opinion has turned against the RIAA and MPAA because they're now known for suing children and little old ladies. Clear Channel has bad enough vibe out there that they are operating under the names of the companies they bought out just to hide their identity since many people no longer want to go to Clear Channel events. Most people accept Microsoft as part of their computer like a keyboard, mouse or monitor. But when people and small businesses start getting sued and the public gets wind of it, not only will it serve as free advertisement for the new "Underdog" but it'll cause a lot of negative opinion against Microsoft. Apple will start collecting more fans as their next home PC will be a happy-faced G5 running something that's not Microsoft.
Go ahead Microsoft... make my day.
Paraphrasing from Mark Twain, "the threat of legal action is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Steve Ballmer has an uphill battle to regain credibility among IT decision-makers if he has to abandon a tactic of directly comparing Microsoft's products to Linux and FOSS on the strict basis of features, price, bugs, security, standards adherence, kindly upgrade path lacking forced obsolescence, licensing terms, etc.
At least in the developed world where Microsoft has dominated the marketplace for years he can always bring up the Windows to Linux migration cost (neglecting to mention anything about the Windows to Windows migration costs) and backward compatibility to bolster his argument.
With this level of desperation, and with SCO's case foundering, MS may decide to fight more openly against Linux in the legal arena. But making such a move is risky from a PR perspective because it will cast MS in a bad light, opposing freely-available, zero-cost technology that helps anyone who cares to use it. While MS might be losing millions of dollars as companies choose FOSS in place of Microsoft products, it's not as if intellectual property violations (if they even exist) cause an equal - or even comparable - slide of millions of dollars into the pockets of greedy IP violators. Rather, most FOSS developers have minuscule wealth compared to Microsoft and stand to gain much less by contributing their work to the world at large. Pressing IP claims against software available to anyone and independently contributed by someone working from scratch in their garage at night is likely to smack of a David vs Goliath dispute, with Goliath wanting his tax from everyone else and David wanting to let the people keep their money.
Additionally, in the developing world they must regard claims of ownership of intellectual property as a curious and amusing Western contrivance for making money and preserving wealth, especially in light of the more preposterous patents that the USPTO has given over the last number of years.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
One way to look at it is that lawsuits are an expensive way to make noise. Ballmer has to make noise or else folks will resume paying attention to their work and finding that MS is an obstacle. Or worse, that folks will start checking out other options like OpenOffice.org or OS X or one of the Linux distros. Or, even worse, they'll start to realise that MS stock is a worse investment than Enron:
Mainstream press is starting to figure out that MS-Windows dominance will last only another 2- 4 years and that only because of the enormous marketing and lobbying engine that MS is. To add weight to that, MS blocked its employees from exercising their "underwater" stock options during 2004. That was intended to increase retention, as employees need to remain with Microsoft to receive the payout. Retention would not be an issue unless the company looked to have no future.
Many execs, however haven't been able to empty their portfolios yet and want more delay.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
"...In my opinion, Linux is thoroughly infested with patent violations. I have in my hand 228 cases of pieces of code which would appear to be either card-carrying patent violations, or certainly disloyal to the cause of intellectual property, but which nevertheless are still helping to shape the functioning of Linux..."
(if you don't get it...)
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
OSRM hired PJ to do a free-lance project for OSRM, a project PJ wanted to do on her own anyway but didn't have the time to do it. The project was to update the Linux timeline. OSRM hired PJ to do this project on a new site, Grokline, not on Groklaw, and said she could spend as much time as she needed to work on Groklaw. This was good as before PJ had to do freelance paralegal work which prevented her from spending as much time on Groklaw as she wanted. Now she could spend a lot more time.
Everybody's happy except those people who believe the lie that PJ sells insurance. She doesn't. She has no controlling interest in OSRM. She was hired by them to do a specific job, a job in fact that will lessen the need for people to get insurance!
As for the 228 or 283 patent violations, that gets thrown around loosely in very inaccurate ways. Read the orignal OSRM press release (yes, it came from them, not from PJ who had nothing to do with it) and you'll see that OSRM is NOT saying that Linux violates patents, but that in today's litigation-happy climate, it's good to be aware that there are a bunch of patents out there that are vague enough to possible be used in nuisance lawsuits by someone hostile to Linux. It doesn't mean Linux really DOES violate those patents, but that unscrupulous companies might try to pretend otherwise. As SCO proved, you can be completely wrong and yet gum up the court system for a long time while you blab about your lies. That costs money. So OSRM, as other groups did, stepped up and said if you were in a vulnerable position (that is, prominent and a likely target from a money-hungry unscrupulous company), they would offer insurance in the case that you did get take to court.
Individual developers don't have to worry about it. They're not the cash-rich targets the SCOs of the world seek to shake down.
None of the above will shake the confidence of the anti-Groklaw shills that are spreading lies about PJ in an attempt to discredit her. They may not be in SCO's employ, they might even be sincere (sincerely wrong, of course), but the net effect is to help SCO's efforts. Way to go, trolls. I hope anyone else who reads this will take the time to research what I said to prove for themselves that what I said is a lot more accurate than what the anti-Groklaw folks are saying.
The article only states that Microsoft dominance will last at least two to four years more, it does not imply it might wane after that point. Only that it is a lock until then.
However the article makes a terrible assumption, that Microsoft is way outspending "Open Source" with R&D dollars!! Six billion (for MS) to ten million (OSDL labs R&D budget).
If you think about it that is really absurd, you should really think about it in terms of raw manpower and not dollars spent. In software some guy in a garage working weekends is every bit a potential source of a great idea as some guy sitting on a million dollars worth of hardware. There is no supercollider or electron microscope of the software world without which it would be hard to make a contribution. Counting manpower, Microsoft is hopelessly outclassed by many orders of magnitude.
So, basically I would say just don't quote that article at all!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley