Microsoft is throwing their weight around once again, and this time they are going against free and open-source software (FOSS). The 235 patent infringements in question are largely regarding the Linux operating system. They don’t give details as to what the patents cover, but they did break it down a little:
The Linux kernel - the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware - violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces - essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up - run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15, while other assorted FOSS programs allegedly transgress 68.
It’s almost as though Microsoft has been trying to build-up to this point because the graph seen above points out that in the past few years they have been going patent crazy. As you can see though, they don’t actually receive a lot of the patents that they apply for. I expect that the ones they do receive they are going to start fighting to protect.
Back in 2003 Microsoft executives decided that it was time to determine what they need to do to protect their patents. Here are the three choices that they had come up with.
- They would do nothing, which basically means the patents would be donated to the community. This wouldn’t make shareholders very happy.
- Sue everyone who is infringing on their patents.
- Let others license the patents in return for royalties or access to their patents. This is the route Microsoft decided to take.
So now Microsoft wants royalties from all of the FOSS users, but in the end I think the FOSS community is going to be taking a different route. Obviously free and open source software is extremely popular for multiple reasons, but the biggest is that you don’t have to pay a thing. Don’t worry, I don’t think any of that will be changing, and one Slashdot commenter did a great job of summing it up:
Note: TCO = Total Cost of Ownership; OSS = Open Source Software; MAFIAA = Music and Film Industry Association of America; OSDL = Open Source Development Labs
This week press titles: “New Microsoft sponsored studies proves TCO to be higher for OSS because of patent fees“, “Microsoft to go after individual users MAFIAA style“
Next week press titles: “238 patches and upgrades on Debian and Ubuntu repositories“, “OSDL sponsored study proves that OSS has the highest reaction time in terms of patch release“
Now not every company is in trouble by Microsoft. For example, Novell drew up a deal with Microsoft last year where they agreed to give Microsoft a percentage of its Linux revenue up to the year 2011 (or a minimum of $40 million) in return for immunity from their lawyers. Other companies, including Dell and Samsung, have also drawn up deals with Microsoft which prevent them from getting sued.
I’m going to venture a guess that this is not going to settle well with the FOSS community. It will be interesting to see the reaction as more information is provided, and we find out what the actual infringements are.
Source: CNN Money [via Slashdot]
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Tags: Freeware, Software, Apple, Dell, Downloads, Linux, Microsoft, OpenOffice, Screenshots, Ubuntu
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Sad…but I wonder if they do try anything will IBM jump in, or how about Google as they both use a lot of FOSS with they services and support open source softwares.
Now they are they just being paranoid.
I do think a lot of the bigger companies will join in, such as Google. They’ve never been one to support Microsoft (since they are pretty much competing with them) so I think they would see this as an opportunity to show how much they love the open source community.
Microsoft’s probably just trying to get rid of their open source competitors. I have heard about the Linux kernel supposedly infringing with patent laws, but where’s the proof? “Oh well, we can’t prove we’re right because we’re too scared to show the source code of our software to the world.” Jeez…
I couldn’t help but laugh.
I have to ask if Microsoft should get one cent I think that is should goto the Commodore amiga workbench
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmigaOS
Obviously Micro$oft is not like Area 51 where if you work there, you can never leave. M$ employees have gone to work for other companies, and no doubt have developed similar applications for those competitors. I know if I wrote an application and then had to write a similar application, I would probably use similar (but not exact) code, because of what I remembered from the previous application, but more, because my brain would work in a similar way to how it did when I wrote the previous code.
I’m really curious to see the similarities between M$ code and the other code to know what their definition of patent violation is. I would also be curious to know how they can prove that their code was written first.
Linus Torvalds, I think, sums it up quite well in this article where he says:
I wonder when M$ is going to change their Mission Statement to “Thou shalt have no other idols but me.”
I’m sure that Microsoft violates patents as well, because there is not doubt that some of their employees go searching the Web to try and figure out how to accomplish some of their coding tasks. Then they probably use ideas from both Linux and other operating systems to accomplish what they set out to do. That’s why this whole thing is ridiculous.