Slashdot Mirror
Is Microsoft About To Declare Patent War On Linux?
Glyn Moody writes "Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, has just published a piece called 'Apple v. HTC: A Step Along the Path of Addressing IP Rights in Smartphones.' In it, he notes that today's smartphones are all about the 'software stack,' not the 'radio stack,' and that 'as the IP situation settles in this space and licensing takes off, we will see the patent royalties applicable to the smartphone software stack settle at a level that reflects the increasing importance software has as a portion of the overall value of the device. In the interim, though, we should expect continued activity.' That 'activity' obviously means lawsuits against those producing those software stacks, and Gutierrez seems to be hinting strongly that Microsoft intends to join in. So where does that leave all the Linux-based stacks such as the increasingly-popular Android? Is this just a clever way for Microsoft to start a patent war on Linux without appearing to do so?"
I guess open source developers need to get their ideas, no matter how primitive, into the various open source repositories so that there is ample prior art to defend with.
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If Microsoft started a patent war against Linux, wouldn't Linux-oriented companies, like say IBM, join in on the fun as well? With big companies, the patent situation is more like a cold war with all the cross-licencing going on.
Besides, why now? Why not 5 years ago? Why not last year?
I've noticed Slashdot doing this more and more. There used to be a frivolous article once a week, twice at most. Now though, it seems there is at least one or two every day. What happened?
Living With a Nerd
The whole tech world took a serious nose dive when politics began to cluelessly try to regulate how to programm, interconnect computers, transmit content and say what I can or can't do with a screwdiver and the electronics I purchased.
The fact that we techies have to learn more about legalities and politics these days than about the latest tech is a serious problem, and slashdot articles unfortunately reflects that but I really think that it is the whole field that is moving in this direction.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.