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Linus Responds To Microsoft Patent Claims
An anonymous reader writes "Linus Torvalds has a sharp retort to Microsoft executives' statements in a Fortune article that Linux violates 235 Microsoft patents. In an emailed response to InformationWeek's Charlie Babcock, Torvalds writes: 'It's certainly a lot more likely that Microsoft violates patents than Linux does.' He added: 'Basic operating system theory was pretty much done by the end of the 1960s. IBM probably owned thousand of really "fundamental" patents... The fundamental stuff... has long, long since lost any patent protection.'" Torvalds also commented on Microsoft's stated intention not to sue Linux users: "They'd have to name the patents then, and they're probably happier with the FUD than with any lawsuit."
This is an innocent question. If the OSS community is ready to debunk these patents, do we really need Microsoft to reveal which of the 235 patents/infringements they're talking about? Couldn't we start a site/database that organizes all of Microsoft's patents and start documenting prior art and such for each. The patents themselves aren't hidden :
Microsoft's patents (6723 patents)
Microsoft's UI patent (155 patents)
(for example)
Why not start debunking the FUD to prove how spurious their claims are? Is it because this would be too much work? (Admittedly, 6723 >> 235)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Is it kind of sad that such retorts are necessary?
Unfortunately, the damage is done. I work for a large financial organization that was *just* venturing outside of Microsoft operating systems and the lawyers sent out a notice today that we are to remove all traces of "open source" software, effective immediately.
I suspect that lots of organizations were in such a boat and Microsoft played their cards accordingly.
The problem is that Linus's comments hold no more weight with XYZ Inc.'s legal department, who are by now recommending that the IT department's move to transfer file sharing from an expensive Server 2003 farm to license-free Samba network be suspended indefinitely. Sure, the guys in the IT department know as well as Linus, you or I that Microsoft is playing a dirty game, but Microsoft doesn't give a shit about Linus, you or I, but about the lawyers and officers of the companies that are actually considering Linux boxes with Samba and OpenOffice running on them.
Do you think it's an accident that OpenOffice was the only OSS project specifically named? Put this in the perspective of MS fighting various governments to stop OpenOffice file formats from becoming the defacto document standards. Hey hey Mr. Massachussetts, that document standard your talking about, well the baseline software that produces it violates a bunch of our patents. Now the talking heads that get into public meetings will have a new and very potent tool in the arsenal, the threat of legal repurcussions if a switch to open software is made.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.