Slashdot Mirror
Who's Behind the Google-Linux License Ruckus?
jfruhlinger writes "Yesterday, news broke that Android might have a Linux copyright problem, which would be big trouble for Google, already locked in an IP struggle with Oracle over the mobile platform. Blogger Brian Proffitt looks deeper into the alleged violations. He notes that, while it's possible that Google's on shaky ground, the motivations behind the news release are murky: the lawyer who outlined the violation is an ex-Microsoft hand, and the news was widely propagated by gadfly Florian Mueller, who's tangled with Google over patent issues in the past. Moreover, the alleged violations are in header files, and it's not clear that those are copyrightable; if they are, no actual copyright holders have come forward to complain."
Yep, I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first because I personally also think some of Microsoft's products aren't that bad and don't really buy into the "Attack Microsoft about everything, for everything, just because they're Microsoft" mentality.
But one or two of his posts I've read now just make me want to vomit, this post is just the icing on the cake. I have to wonder if as someone else suggested he is in fact Florian or some other equally pointless waste of space.
Either way it's stupid, if Microsoft is paying this shill and it's not just some irrational fanboy who just isn't capable of even the slightest bit of objectivity - i.e. the SuperKendall of the Microsoft world perhaps, then it's one of Microsoft's more stupid moves. They've been making ground in recent years IMO in terms of becoming a slightly less evil tech company, and an action like this would just undo all of that. If it is just a fanboy then I fucking pity him.