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Subject: |
[pi_france] MSFT may start patent litigation against Linux |
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Date: |
Sun, 26 Mar 2006 09:34:52 +0200 |
Saber rattling gets louder: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hints at
possibility
of Microsoft litigating against Linux vendors and/or users
March 25, 2006
In an interview with Forbes that has also been published in part by
VNUnet's
Web site www.computing.co.uk, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer stops short
of
announcing patent litigation against Linux:
"Well, I think there are experts who claim Linux violates our
intellectual
property. I'm not going to comment. But to the degree that that's the
case,
of course we owe it to our shareholders to have a strategy. And when
there
is something interesting to say, you'll be the first to hear it."
This is almost like announcing that there will sooner or later be an
announcement of Microsoft starting patent litigation against Linux
vendors
and/or users.
By "intellectual property" he must mean patents. IP is a broad term and
includes diverse rights, but it's hard to see how Linux would infringe
any
trade mark rights or copyrights held by Microsoft. However, given the
size
of the Linux code, it's almost certain that it will violate a number of
patents, and some of them, such as the ones on the FAT file system, may
indeed be held by Microsoft.
In the chapter Know Your Enemy, my forthcoming book No Lobbyists As Such
-
The War over Software Patents in the European Union (to be announced in
detail on Tuesday) discusses the motivations on the part of certain
large
corporations to lobby for software patents. The evolution of Microsoft's
attitude toward software patents, from vehement opposition against them
to
large-scale lobbying for them, is also explained in that chapter.
Ballmer's Forbes interview marks another step in that evolution. In
November
2004, Reuters reported that "Microsoft Corp. warned Asian governments on
Thursday they could face patent lawsuits for using the Linux operating
system instead of its Windows software." That statement is also quoted
on
NoSoftwarePatents.com. It is quite different from Ballmer's latest
Forbes
interview in that the November 2004 statement left open the question of
who
would potentially sue Linux users for patent infringement. Now Microsoft
indicates more clearly than ever before that it might do so itself,
justifying such a step with a need to protect the interests of its
shareholders.
There are certain hypocritical companies in the industry who pretend to
support and defend Linux and open source while actually pursuing
completely
different interests. The initiatives they have taken so far with
so-called
patent pools and pledges are of virtually no value. The risk to Linux
and
open source vendors and users is practically the same with or without
the
OSDL patent library or IBM's "generous" pledges. But even the leading
independent Linux vendors lack the courage to lobby seriously for better
legislation in the US, claiming that it would be futile although the
European software patent debate shows that it is not. And even here in
Europe, MySQL AB is at this stage the only open source company that is
truly
active on the anti-software patent lobbying front through its support of
my
efforts.
The false friends of Linux and open source are involved in some "patent
quality initiatives", which again are not going to solve or
significantly
alleviate the problem. At some of those companies, the executives in
charge
of open source community relations don't have responsibility for patent
policy. That area is firmly under the control of lawyers.
Hopefully, Ballmer's increasingly unconcealed threats will make some
people
realize the need to act.
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