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Microsoft Says Free Software Violates 235 Patents
prostoalex writes "Microsoft told Fortune magazine that various free software products violate at least 235 patents, and it's time to expect users of this software to pay up patent licensing royalties: 'Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents.'"
Ladies and gentlemen, we have tonight a bout between two of the worlds greatest software idealogists.
In the Blue corner weighing in at 289 pounds we have Monkey Boy Ballmer, his speciality move: The chair.
In the Red corner, weighing in at 432 pounds we have the one and only R.M.S, speciality move, being R.M.S.
Who will win this epic battle?
liqbase
Microsoft, fuck you!
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I once has 235 itches too. Remember: DON'T SCRATCH!
Now that will be a cold day in hell when they get that money out of me.
Tell Mr. Balmer he is welcome to a portion of the $699 Linux IP license I paid SCO. I hear they sold lots and lots of them.
My rights don't need management.
Here's what the interview should have been:
Microsoft: It's a fact that Linux and free software infringe hundreds of our patents.
Journalist: Which ones?
Microsoft: Well, the kernel violates 60, the GUI violates...
Journalist (interrupting): which 60? Where is the list?
Microsoft: I'm not prepared to disclose that at this time.
Journalist: Well this is a big fucking waste of my time, isn't it?
Journalist: I went through this same dance with Darl McBride. Call me when you have something to say, bye
And when the software idea land grab completely owns every possible idea, the laws will be changed like copyrights to extend length of ownership 100, 200, 500, 1000 years after the author's death.
Support your Innovator!
A cajón is a big box (the aumentative of caja). A cojón is a testicle. Maybe that's the word you were looking for?
...infringment on 1) use of numbers 2) use of words, punctuation, sentences... 3) use of algebra sum(A1:A22) 4) excessive problems with operating systems and applications -- I can prove my mental condition is much worse having used MS products and so on...
And our lawyers will work pro bono because so many of them hate MS too.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
> get rid of software patents
So is it finally time to rise up and tear down the gov't patent office? Man, I've been waiting ages for a good 'ol revolution like this.
Let us know and we'll just remove them. Should have replacements in no time at all... well... at least less than 5 years from the last major release.
Well that's where my secret patent comes in: a method for naming a collection of code starting with the letter L and ending with the letter X. Let's see you get around that one!
I would expect we all send MS a check for $0.01, really. The administrative headache will be the stuff of legend, and I imagine MS will have to create a whole new department and employ an extra 1,000 people for mail handling and admin processing.
HEX offender mugshot ID: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Microsoft wants to take on FOSS? Oh, this oughta be hilarious. This is going to make the SCO debacle look like "Great Moments in Brain Surgery."
Gifts for Geeks
Speak for yourself. I was never _joking_ about the evil empire. I helped support a department revolt in the 90s against Word on our campus that at least left WordPerfect the "acceptable co-installed alternative" for another couple years. Felt that strongly that Word was a piece of crap.
I assume this is FUD mostly directed at Red Hat because it isn't like they are going to seize the international corporate headquarters of Debian or Slackware. What would they propose to stop the kudzu-like growth of the really free distributions? Take down notices on source servers? Set up servers to try to catch people using linux browsers?
And if only you were Denny Crane, you would have had guns right there.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
I'm glad to see this happen. I think it's time you people pay up for your use of Microsoft's innovative code. Pay up and quit riding their coat tails. I think it's a shame that MS does all the work and Linux just grabs their patented code. For Shame...
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Did you read the whole article? Or did you get bored after looking at the pictures?
It presents both sides of the argument fairly to me. It has plenty of praise for RMS on page 2. It clearly states that Microsoft's actions are unsound and likely to result in harm to the software industry on page 3.
All in all, I think the article is pretty balanced.
A picture of Steve Ballmer, wearing a suit, looking harmless,
Oh, and your idea of harmless and mine are clearly different. He looks ready to explode in that picture.
How we know is more important than what we know.
LFreeBSDX. LSolarisX. Ah, crap, I couldn't do it :)
Sam ty sig.
*psst* The answer is Lynx.
After all, I am strangely colored.
I take none of those products was a spell checker.
I've customised my version of Linux so it uses the registry, runs outlook, internet explorer and has a DOS prompt. It's admired wherever I take it. I was worried that this would happen, though. That finally Microsoft would catch on to my nefarious activities. Now I'll have to revert to plain-old, bog-standard linux, and give up the genuine advantage that I'd accrued for myself. Please don't make me remove MS IP from my distro.
Lets face it, if it wasn't for Microsoft's patented ideas, Free Software wouldn't be worth using. >-}}}}}8>
Next week press titles "238 patches and upgrades on Debian and Ubuntu repositories", "OSDL sponsored study proves that OSS has the highest reaction time in terms of patch release", "RMS & Linus to give speech about strengths of OSS development ; Ballmer responds throwing chairs".
You're forgetting some other important ones:
"Linus Torvals demands to see proof of Linux patent violations." "All of Europe calls for a ban on Software Patents, again." "IBM claims Windows violates 15,302 IBM Patents, demands reasonable fee of $1 per patent per copy of Windows sold."
The good news is that most of those patents are violated by MONO and when Microsoft hoists them up as an example the debate on whether that was ever a good idea will be settled once and for all.
Don't know what issues your talking about in Australia. Our current government motto when it comes to U.S. intellectual property law (in fact any law that a US entity wishes to impose on Australian citizens) is "We swallow"
This post patent pending.
http://www.converium.com/2103.asp
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
In Soviet Russia, Microsoft bashes YOU!!!
And THAT is why I love aussie girls.
I'm still waiting for all the money I was supposed to get from forwarding all those emails... maybe they'll just deduct my $0.01 from that
Do you LOL in real life?
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
Dear Computing World,
We already claim that title, but thank you for your most humble concern.
Sincerely,
Microsoft
LAMO, that is not just in Soviet Russia!
www.aleo.no
The results are..... interesting, to say the least.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I guess this just means MS found 235 apps on SourceForce than can read from a FAT drive then :P
Some of the 328 patents likely have prior art, but that's a big number. I'm sure some of the 382 patents are legit. The open-source community has shown it's good at distributed bug-fixing and even development, but could we handle hunting down 823 patents?
"Did he infringe 235 patents or only 347?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a GPL License, the most powerful free software agreement in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, Ballmer?
Cake or Death? Cake Please!