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Microsoft, Amazon Ink Kindle and Linux Patent Deal
theodp writes "Microsoft says it has reached a wide-ranging IP agreement with Amazon in which each company has granted the other a license to its patent portfolio. Microsoft says the agreement covers technologies in products such as Amazon's Kindle — including open-source and proprietary technologies used in the e-reader — in addition to the use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft issued a news release celebrating the accord, while Amazon declined to comment. 'We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,' said Microsoft's deputy general counsel. 'Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.' A Microsoft representative declined to say which of its products are covered by the deal."
I can't imagine lawyers in India that are in-depth knowledgeable about the US Legal System and what is required to file and what arguments to make, not to mention admitted to the bar in the USA Taking depositions and actually going to court would be difficult from India! Maybe those guys type the standard form letters MS sends out alleging patent and copyright violations. Actually their web site says they do all the legwork paralegals normally do like case law and other research, etc for IP law cases. So they aren't lawyers but lawyers helpers.
Microsoft has won. Open Source/Free Sofware as we know it will never be the same. They have effectively put a cost on any serious use of Linux in the marketplace. "You open source folks are free to tinker but any serious deployments or projects will have to pay us the Microsoft tax." This will effectively slow the rate of adoption of Linux/GNU in the marketplace. And why do i think they won? Because the FOSS community is just sitting back burying their heads and doing nothing about this. HELLO LINUS!!, ODSL, FSF, SAMBA, Microsoft is making money on your back in the most egregious manner while continuing to spread fear in the marketplace. Are you going to continue to bury your collective heads in the sand or are you going to do something about this extortion racket that Microsoft is running behind your backs? If the community does nothing then Microsoft wins. This is terrible. What a nightmare.