Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft (Probably) Didn't Just Buy Unix

Posted by Soulskill on from the how's-that-for-definitive dept.

jfruhlinger writes "Word came down this morning that when Attachmate bought Novell, certain intellectual property rights were sold to a Microsoft-led consortium as part of the deal. Since Unix is the most valuable piece of IP Novell owns, there was a certain amount of panic that suddenly Redmond is in charge of this foundational technology for Linux and a number of other open source projects. But, while MS is being cagey, Brian Proffitt doubts that Unix was part of the IP package that was sold — and believes that Linux would be safe even if it were."

4 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I certainly hope so by crazycheetah · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix

  2. If you want the story, see Groklaw by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 5, Informative

    www.groklaw.net. Pamela Jones is the Empress, the rightful dispenser of knowledge on who goeth there regarding Linux, the Law, and the great game called Follow The Money.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  3. Except Novell didn't own unix by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Informative
    The Regents of Southern California would have a thing to say about that - the AT&T settlement made one thing clear - no one entity "owns" unix.

    The University also claimed that similar lines of source code (which were presented during discovery) did not infringe on USL's copyright because they had become public domain by the actions of AT&T: AT&T had promoted UNIX as a standard, licensing it to universities and allowing UNIX source code to be published in textbooks. The University submitted briefs from the UC Berkeley students and staff, explaining how they had audited the code, looking for freely available copies of the source code and methods. When they could find none, they said, they removed the code and rewrote it using publicly known techniques—and so any remaining similarities existed because AT&T had effectively abandoned the copyright to them.

    Novell didn't have to show they owned the rights to Unix in SCO vs Novell - just that, whatever rights they had, they didn't convey them to Santa Cruz.

    So whatever they bought from AT&T, it wasn't "ALL right to Unix."

  4. Re:They bought 882 Novell patents; Whither OIN? by diegocg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, just take a look. Novell was one of the companies that invented networking, so they have stuff that probably every modern OS is infringing. Active Directory very probably infringed some of them (that probably was one of the reasons why Microsoft signed a patent agreement with them). Just some examples:

    Method and apparatus for network file recovery

    Firewall system for quality of service management

    Methods, data stores, data structures, and systems for electronic identity

    System and method for automically authenticating a user in a distributed network system

    Method and apparatus for proxy authentication

    Secure intranet access

    System and method for synchronizing database information

    They even have some UI patents: Method for automatically resizing a child window

    And some weird OS functionality Method and apparatus for mapping page table trees into virtual address space

    Of course they are stupid, but god knows what can a good lawyer firm do with them.