Ballmer Repeats Threats Against Linux

daria42 writes "Steve Ballmer has reissued Microsoft's patent threat against Linux, warning open-source vendors that they must respect his company's intellectual property. In a no-nonsense presentation to New York financial analysts last week, Microsoft's chief executive said the company's partnership with Novell, which it signed in November 2006, "demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property, even in the open-source world.""

Comments

Re:I do not get this

[ZachPruckowski]

BSD wouldn't help. The argument here is over patents, and so in theory, any company without a MS patent license could be sued. The companies with MS patent licenses (or enough patents to keep MS from suing them) are Apple, Sun, Novell, and IBM.

Re:Details, Ballmer or it ain't so

[jeevesbond]

IBM is still digging into SCO's near corpse to find the detials of SCO's accusations. Which were, are and for ever more shall be totally bogus.

The difference between the two cases is SCO claimed copyright infringement whereas Microsoft is claiming patent infringement (I believe).

Software patents are so much more vague than copyright, so there's a good chance some of the GNU/Linux operating system is infringing. Remember the study that found 283 possible software patent infringements in the Linux kernel alone? I would be suprised if some of those didn't belong to Microsoft (and that was 2004, there are probably more now).

This public sabre-rattling is not without basis. Seems to me that Microsoft are keeping the specifics under wraps, then threatening companies with them in private. Remember what ex-Novell employee said in this interview? Here's a reminder:

I mean I have had people come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free software that they were using, which they then cannot redistribute.

It's also funny you should mention this:

Otherwise Microsoft looks like a bigger SCO.

Some people (including this respected legal blogger--at the bottom of that article) believe Microsoft funded and put SCO up to its anti-GNU/Linux FUD litigation. So, really they are a bigger SCO!

Re:MS infringing

[Volante3192]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/07/microsoft_ pays_excel_man/

There's precidence in MS losing a patent case. It can happen.

Dance Ballmer Monkey Dance

[Ranger]

Look at him go!

Re:Everything old is new again.

[mosch]

Their latest report says this on linux:

In recent years, certain "open source" software business models have evolved into a growing challenge to our license-based software model. Open source commonly refers to software whose source code is subject to a license allowing it to be modified, combined with other software and redistributed, subject to restrictions set forth in the license. A number of commercial firms compete with us using an open source business model by modifying and then distributing open source software to end users at nominal cost and earning revenue on complementary services and products. These firms do not have to bear the full costs of research and development for the software. A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system. Although we believe our products provide customers with significant advantages in security and productivity, and generally have a lower total cost of ownership than open source software, the popularization of the open source software model continues to pose a significant challenge to our business model, including continuing efforts by proponents of open source software to convince governments worldwide to mandate the use of open source software in their purchase and deployment of software products. To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.

It mentions overall Intellectual Property rights as a risk as well, but does not note any offenders, nor any plans to mitigate the problem via lawsuits.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights against piracy, infringement of our patents by third parties, or declining legal protection for intellectual property. We defend our intellectual property rights and combat unlicensed copying and use of software and intellectual property rights through a variety of techniques. Preventing unauthorized use or infringement of our rights is difficult. Piracy of our products represents a loss of revenue to us. While this adversely affects U.S. revenue, the impact on revenue from outside the United States is more significant, particularly in countries where laws are less protective of intellectual property rights. Similarly, the absence of harmonized patent laws makes it more difficult to ensure consistent respect for patent rights. Future legal changes could make this even more challenging. Throughout the world, we actively educate consumers about the benefits of licensing genuine products and obtaining indemnification benefits for intellectual property risks, and we educate lawmakers about the advantages of a business climate where intellectual property rights are protected. However, continued educational and enforcement efforts may fail to enhance revenue. Reductions in the legal protection for software intellectual property rights or compliance with additional intellectual property obligations impacting the rights of software developers could both adversely affect revenue.

I see nothing here that indicates a belief that Open Source and Linux in particular are nothing more than a threat to the business model, so I still think his comments are just FUD.

Value?

[CompMD]

From TFA: "We are higher priced, but we bring greater value," Ballmer added."

From my windows server systeminfo:

OS Name: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Standard Edition
OS Version: 5.2.3790 Service Pack 1 Build 3790
System Up Time: 13 Days, 17 Hours, 46 Minutes, 39 Seconds

Linux server 1:
$ uptime
  16:23:45 up 162 days, 18:58, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.01

Linux server 2:
$ uptime
  16:23:21 up 162 days, 19:01, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

The windows server is for active directory and acts as a file and printer server. The linux servers are web, database, mail, and file servers. The windows server cost over $3,000 for hardware and software. The more powerful and versatile linux servers were $400 specials. Tell me where the value is, Steve-o.

Oh, and the reason the linux server uptime is 162 days is because something blew up at the local power substation and we had no power for a day.

Pretty ironic really

[Salsaman]

Coming from the chairman of a company which is:

1) being sued for including mp3 software without a full patent license
2) being sued by AT&T by shipping development work overseas to avoid US patents
3) got succesfully sued by Eolas for the browser plugins patent infringement
4) is currently being sued by a company called Visto for mobile email and data patent infringements
5) got successfully sued by Timeline for patent infringement in SQL Server
6) is being sued by a company called VirnetX for patent infringement in VPN

the list goes on...

Re:Everything old is new again.

[Husgaard]

I don't think this is possible under US law. But in most european countries the law is harsher on telling lies in an attempt to distort the market. In the SCO case, a settlement after a temporary restraining order on Germany meant that SCO could no longer spread their lies in Germany.

Where are the patent numbers?

[Animats]

Let;'s hear some patent numbers from Microsoft. Nobody will pay attention until Microsoft comes up with some specific claims. The SCO case has made that clear.

Re:I do not get this

[russ1337]

>>> In essence, the Linux Samba Client was reverse-engineered by an individual, who crafted his code through straight trial-and-error on an SMB terminal, then packaged and released the client under GPL.

There is a great interview with Jeremy Allison of Samba on FLOSS weekly #14, http://www.twit.tv/floww14 where he basically tells how he made Samba. Quite a good listen really. Most interesting is his trial and error causing the Windows computer to which he was sending packets to reboot/hang/crash. I recall he said he submitted bug reports to MSFT to help them fix issues (like being able to remotely crash a windows machine over the network).

If everything Steve says is true (which I personally believe it is), then M$FT don't have a leg to stand on. If someone within the MSFT organization has looked at the Samba code and seen similarities it is only because they're talking to the same system with the same messages.

I'm talking to you in semi-coherent English, but that does not mean I've infringed any Patents on LCD/Plasma/CRT/Ass display you're reading this on.

Re:Why is a lawsuit war a disaster?

[ashridah]

A huge waste of time, money and resources, and possibly an economic breakdown.

I'm not sure it'd be an economic breakdown, seems more like all the money would just end up going to the lawyers. We'd have a lawyerocracy instead, since they'd end up being the undisputed rulers of the world.

That said, since they'd be undisputed, they'd run out of cash because there'd be no cases left, so it wouldn't last long. :)

ash

Re:Why is a lawsuit war a disaster?

[aybiss]

"hey, if the USA and the USSR wipe themselves out tomorrow, where's the downside?" Well, the downside is that the world just ended.

Spoken like a true American (I'll assume you're not from the USSR since the US basically ended their world around 10 years ago). Do you honestly believe we'd miss you, McDonald's, lawyers out of control, the Iraq war and all that other stuff???