Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
Hi, you've reached IBM headquarters.
No one is here to take your call right now.
We have not, repeat NOT all been laid off.
Your call is important to us, so please leave a message at the tone and someone from Bangalore will return your call real soon now."
Dear Sir I am Prince Abu Niffigihiffigitty-Swakabaka Shibazz of Nigeria And I Have Need Of Your Help. I Found Your Name On The Internet While Looking For An Honest Deserving Business Partner. I Must Get $180,393,282,191,482 Out Of My Country Before ...
"Tu fui, ego eris" - Virgil
If only that logic translated correctly to the stores, companies, and government offices here in the US. Press 2 for ___. Yeah, I'm going off-topic from the OP, sorry.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
on your sig and say that not only is DRM theft but very notion of intellectual property is theft; moreover, in matters of abundance and excess resources the addition of markets only serves to create poverty, not wealth.
Yes indeed, the problem surely goes well beyond Microsoft and Steve "McCarthy" Balmer.
But I want to point out something that I haven't seen so far although it is alluded to in some comments lower down a bit and that is the lack of software patent protections in Europe to date. I think this is a pretty major hole in this plan. If they really wanted to make this stick, they'd wait till a time when the forces of darkness push through some kind of onerous software protection scheme in the EU. The US is certainly Microsoft's largest market, but if you look at global sales such as in this link you see that a third of MS's market is outside the US and you'd think they might want to close up that little hole before they started whooping up the war cries.