Microsoft wants Royalties from Linux, Open Source

[Wistrik]

Article

 

Microsoft abusing their position yet again. If they can prove code theft (verbatim copying), more power to them, but chances are this is just another "crush the competition" crusade. One day no one outside Microsoft's campus will be allowed to write software without first purchasing a license from them.

[metadigital]

According to open-software experts Microsoft is the real winner. The deal with Novell allows Microsoft to go out and demonstrate it is correct about Linux violating Microsoft patents, since Novell agreed to pay $40 million not to have its Linux customers sued for violations.

I'm no lawyer, but just because someone settles out of court doesn't test/prove the precedent.

 

Novell were just limiting all expenses: no long drawn-out court battles and counter-suing with Microsoft and (most importantly) each other's customers.

 

Proving patent infringement is almost impossible, save for direct code theft (as you intimated). And it is quite comical that Microsoft are upset at people infringing their graphical interface, when Apple did it a decade before them, and the Palo Alto Lab invented it a decade or more before them!

 

It's all sabre-rattling.

 

As an aside, oh how far Novell has fallen ... from having over 80% of the Network OS market in the 90s, when Windows was just elbowing onto the stage ...

[Walsingham]

I concur. One major reason for an out of court settlement is that it does not set a precedent. Viz the way the UK banks have been avoiding going to court over overdraft payments.

[Diamond]

Linus Torvalds has responded.

"So the whole, 'We have a list and we're not telling you,' itself should tell you something," Torvalds said of Microsoft's stance in the Fortune story. And for good measure, he added: "Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, 'nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!'"

 

Microsoft would prefer not to actually sue anyone, particularly a Linux user who's also a Microsoft customer. "They'd have to name the patents then, and they're probably happier with the FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt] than with any lawsuit," Torvalds predicted.

[metadigital]

Exactly. Microsoft is not only capable, but has a history of suing companies at the drop of a hat.

 

This is all FUD.

[Blank]

You're all FUD!

[Pidesco]

Go FUD yourselves.

[Sand]

ELMER!