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Burst.com and Microsoft Settle

Posted by timothy on from the legal-shenanigans dept.

prostoalex writes "Microsoft and Burst.com announced a tentative settlement, where Microsoft will pay Californian company $60 mln for allegedly stolen multimedia streaming software. Robert X. Cringely provided the recap of the court case back in 2003 (and Slashdot discussion ensued). According to Burst claims, Microsoft entered a non-disclosure agreement with the company to learn about Burst's multimedia streaming technology. Later the technology, for which Burst has 37 patents, has been found in Windows Media Player. When aksed to present the archives of the e-mails and all communications within the company for the trial, Microsoft somehow presented all the documents that preceded before the deal and the documents that followed it. The e-mails during the 35 weeks that negotiations were held mysteriously disappeared. In court Microsoft claimed the e-mails were erased from employee's desktops, e-mail servers and server backups. The technology was not interesting to Microsoft, lawyers insisted, so the electronic trail of communications was erased."

3 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. It's interesting... by xeon4life · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How they attack Microsoft, as their patents can apply to many other multimedia streaming. Who knows what else can be targeted? WinAmp? Hopefully not.

    Companies that exist for the sole purpose of patenting ideas and sitting on them disgust me.

    --
    Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
  2. Re:again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given that Burst holds mostly trivial and evil software patents (send bursts of data when network conditions are good... GENIUS, I'd NEVER have thought of that! (that's sarcasm, BTW...)), this is pretty much one thief and another, much larger, thief, not a "good guy vs. bad guy" thing.

  3. The SCO connection by div_2n · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It could be just coincidence, but Burst.com is also a company held by Baystar Capital. These are the people responsible for $50 million in funding for the SCO legal case against IBM over Linux. But then you would have to believe that when Microsoft helped Baystar and SCO meet was a coincidence. And don't forget when Microsoft bought $12 million in SCO licenses when they didn't need them.

    And who can forget when Sun bought SCO licenses too and then less than a year later, Microsoft and Sun were best friends and settled their lawsuits with each other.

    Maybe some of this stuff is a coincidence and then again maybe none of it is. I find it hard to believe that all of it is a coincidence though.