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Should Microsoft's Amdocs Deal Worry Data Center Operators?
On Tuesday, Microsoft signed a patent cross-license agreement with Amdocs Software Systems. They specifically noted in their press release that the agreement covered Amdocs' use of 'Linux-based servers in its data centers,' and noted that Amdocs paid them money for the privilege. In light of the current state of mobile device licensing, with Microsoft getting a cut from most Android device sales, should data centers operators worry about having to pay Microsoft for their use of Linux servers? From the article: "To date, Linux advocates have been hypersensitive to any move Microsoft has made against the open-source OS—which, to be fair, Microsoft has seen as a threat since its inception. It's certainly possible that Amdocs approached Microsoft for a patent cross-license for its own purposes; but if that's the case, Amdocs would likely have disclosed that fact. Amdocs representatives declined to comment on the deal, and the arrangement has been completely ignored on the Amdocs Website. ... The question, though, is whether Microsoft will begin eyeing data-center operators as a similar source of licensing revenue. The company has avoided directly challenging Linux developer/distributors such IBM or Red Hat, instead targeting partners and customers."
The company has avoided directly challenging Linux developer/distributors such IBM or Red Hat, instead targeting partners and customers."
Don't do business with Microsoft. If this is their new business model, sell your MSFT stock.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
As a D Level executive, I say FUCK'EM! Somebody on Slashdot posted that they can't do that and their lawyer is incompetent! It's GPL'd! GO ahead and sue me! I've got an army of Slashdot posters giving me legal advice!
Microsoft will rue the day!
Who says they did even do business with MS?
For all we know this patent settlement could be $0 and nothing is paid for. In fact, it's pretty likely given the patents that B&N already showed that MS was trying to use for this purpose.
See if you look at what they're doing, they're not actually trying to stem the flow of their "IP".
If their IP was valuable, or if they had a reasonable case, they'd take it to redhat, etc...
I mean if I invented something and someone big was selling the same thing.... and I had a case for it.... Why would I go after small potatoes Users rather than the big guy with $1billion dollars?
Unless my goal is to just extract small payments out of everyone because I know that I don't have a real case. Just be enough of a nuissance that people pay me to go away rather than fix the problem. I have no interest in fixing the problem, that doesn't benefit my wallet. Especially if the problem is trivial.
Where's the IBM suit? Oracle? Redhat? no, they could change things so that I wouldn't get my paychecks.
Why not at least tell people what's infringing so that I can be honest? Patents aren't secret anyways, so any patent I have is already public, but how I'm using them isn't. NDA's all around so that nobody ever knows and can't file a class-action for my security payments..
Pay me or I'll smash up your small bar.
Should Microsoft's Amdocs Deal Worry Data Center Operators?
I wouldn't get too worried about it.
Microsoft is just trying to stay ahead of Apple, Sony, Disney and Oracle as the world's most odious hi-tech/media company.
The ball was in their court this month.
XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen
Does anyone still believe MS really has a patent that can affect Linux that hard? There should be tons of Unix and similar O.S. from the 70's to nuke any patent. Every supposed patent MS tries to show will get scrutinized and destroyed in no time. As long as we can see them, of course. How can your judicial system allow for a patent based suit, which includes a government granted monopoly, with the option for the plaintiff NOT disclosing the exact terms supposedly being infringed? If the company received a monopoly grant if also receives some obligations, not only rights.
The reason companies are signing patent agreements with MS is that it's painfully expensive to defend from a patent infringement suit and even more to invalidate a patent. So the cost to pay for each product is relatively small comparing to the millions spent on a trial. Look at the bill of costs from Google in Oracle vs Google: 4 million dollars on only DIRECT expenses, not counting time, bad image and so on.
This system cannot survive as it is, no new tech will ever be developed at USA (which is almost the case now), leaving USA as only leeches of other countries technology advances. If that happens, somewhere in time the other countries will stop paying USA for doing nothing, ACTA like treaties will be declared void and USA will reach a new low. No one will keep paying for rectangular shaped with round corners patents forever.
My hope is that the sanity prevails in short-to-medium time, cause it's already affecting all the economy, not only the USA. Can't you see the storm coming? This system is only making lawyers rich, the cost is growing for every one.
Flavio
When this becomes Important to IBM then the Blood Will Flow. The only reason we did not see real action from the Nazgul in The SCO case is that The MoFo ground them into paste (okay it took an obscenely long time but...
They try this with IBM or an IBM partner and they will be PASTE on a STICK.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
It just occurred to me that FreeBSD could be an acronym for...
FUCK MICROSOFT
redmond gets no kickbacks
everyone deserves a free choice
everyone! (Even data centers!)*
Berkeley Software Distribution
Solution to the problem
Deal with it, Microsoft Motherfuckers!
* Fill in the blank here with whomever Microsoft is trying to rip off today.
How Israeli Backdoor Technology Penetrated the U.S. Government's Telecom System and Compromised National Security
An Israeli Trojan Horse
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/09/27/an-israeli-trojan-horse/
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B&N was fighting this FUD but looks like that they capitulate.... http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Barnes-Noble-Microsoft-deal-settles-patent-dispute-1563990.html
Patent crazy North America and Britain = 400 million people more or less. World population > 6 billion. Granted America has in past been capable of a great deal of technological innovation, but the rest of world is catching up quickly while America spirals down in ever decreasing circles of patent litigation. And this is compounded by the fact that any of the "limited by IP lawsuit" innovation they manage to do invariably gets exploited in offshore countries so that for example, the only part of a google phone that are made in America is the injection molded case.
The circle is complete, now the only thing Americans can do are the same things that Asia was limited to sell to America 50 years ago. Can do... not "capable of". Doesn't matter what you are capable of if the patent holding companies offshore the innovative stuff. The patent system is broken, we all know that. So who cares what deals are made. We're supposed to learn from history, but see what happens when myopic business leaders and lawyers ignore the advice of the technocrats... and voila, Deming is vindicated... in a few years the anti IP patent people will be too. To the detriment of those of us in North America (except for maybe Alberta until the oil runs out or no-one wants the dirty tar sand oil any more).
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Is one obvious thing going on. In fact, we're not even sure which way the money flows in all these cases, due to the NDA's - some cross licensing might be going on.
But one really good reason not to sue, say, Google - masters of finding prior art, obviously (see Oracle) - is discovery. First thing a deep pockets defendant does is force access to windows source code, and go through it finding out how many patents/copyrights MS is in violation of themselves.
Yes, MS doesn't want anyone to know what patents apply - so we can't work around them. They also really don't want anyone to know how much money flows and in which direction. And they really, really, really don't want people to find out how much of (copyrighted) open source they've stolen, deliberately or accidentally, from the very people they are threatening, as it would be "game over" at that point. Due to the crazy number of patents/copyrights out there on software, it would probably be difficult to specify how many MS violates without resorting to exponential notation...
And that's why they are closed-source, period. That's some real dirty underwear they'd have to show. If Oracle thought that 9 lines of obvious code and a few headers that were part of a standard are sue-able....just think about the body of software microsoft is keeping the source hidden on.....it would be pretty huge to see it - and someone like google or redhat would be able to run it through sophisticated enough diffs to find a ton of MS violations - even if they are "innocent" of deliberate copying, since everything is already copyrighted or patented already. You can't do printf without breaking a few, much less write an opsys or a word processor.
I think the posters here have read the press release (or at least the summary) exactly as Microsoft hoped they would. But there's a lot less threat to Linux in this than it may seem. The news is that Microsoft and Amdocs have signed a blanket cross-licensing agreement and Amdocs has paid some money. That's it.
Should Amdocs' cafeteria be using Microsoft-patented techniques in making their breakfast burritos, that's cool now -- It's covered in the agreement (even if it's not likely). And if Amdocs is using Microsoft-patented technology in the Linux-based servers in its data centers, that's cool too -- even if it's not likely. The fact that Microsoft takes pains to mention it in their press release is pure spin.
I.e. nothing to see here.
Amdocs, ...seems like the perfect company for Microsoft to be involved with to compliment everyone's paranoia about Skype. They (Amdocs) have an interesting history and have access to a lot of information, and perhaps other things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SBWJ8jaFrg (part 2 of 2). But I guess this is a little off topic.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Microsoft is only brilliant in the short-term. If they do this enough times, sooner or later they either encounter another big bully or piss off enough of the little kids they'll have a rebellion on their hands. Short-term profits, but long-term Microsoft could be generating so much ill-will that people would prefer not to do business with them unless absolutely necessary.
When you say it's PAINFULL EXPENSIVE to fight, surely you mean it's EXTREMELY REWARDING to sign!
The latest is B&N, who received $300 million inducement to switch from Android to the Windows thing, and settle the patents. Samsung received 50 million in marketing money when it settled for 50 million.
It's a scam. They don't dare sue Google yet, till they have enough fake licenses to pretend to have a valid claim. The question is, what is the deal with Amdocs? I've always assumed they were a Mossad front (ex Israeli military created it, it processes almost all of the US's telephone records, the data of who talked to whom, an incredible surveillance tool).
So there may be some hidden items to this deal that we'll never find out about.
Add a passage to GPL to the effect that if the licensee pays a third party a fee for use of the software, it's a breach of GPL and they cannot use the software under GPL anymore. Is this legally possible?
Of course in the case at hand it's not clear if it's about Linux itself, or about some Microsoft crap that might be running on the Linux machines.