The Guardian blogs - May 14, 2007 http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/05/14/microsoft_takes_on_the_free_world.html Microsoft takes on the free world By Jack Schofield / Business/ Lunatic Tendencies/ Microsoft/ Open source Great headline (above) in Fortune magazine, where an article suggests that Microsoft is threatening a sort of patent Armageddon. The story says: Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS [free/open source software] users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents. Fortune compares the situation to MAD, the threat of "mutually assured destruction" during the cold war. As soon as one side uses nukes, everyone loses. The warhead-rattling is probably Microsoft creating FUD (an IBM invention for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to discourage risk-averse large companies from using Linux, or at least using a Microsoft-approved version from Novell. It doesn't really matter unless Microsoft lists the patents and launches some lawsuits. On the other hand, Microsoft's lawyers may have an exaggerated idea of the power of patents, given the billions that the company has recently had to pay out to patent trolls. Remember, lawyers aren't obliged to act sensibly, just legally. Since the US software patent system is an inherently bad idea, its patents are granted incompetently, and the court processes are farcical, it's pretty much a lottery. Microsoft's lawyers might be willing to try a few random bets to see if they win anything -- though the PR damage would, I expect, far outweigh any cash gains. And it's not as though Microsoft needs the money. It will be interesting to see what IBM does, since it is even more heavily invested in owning the patent landscape than Microsoft, a latecomer to the game. IBM makes well over 90% of its income from proprietary systems, but it does talk up its support for open source. (As well as saving on programming costs, it is a great way of accumulating customers that can be upgraded from Linux to AIX, or to "hosted Linux" on proprietary mainframes.) However, IBM's patent-based strategy means it can't ship its own Linux distro, which would technically be easy enough to do. IBM has a stated strategy of collecting money for its intellectual property, and recently extracted a bundle of cash from Amazon. The IBM announcement says: Dan Cerutti, IBM's General Manager of Software Intellectual Property, said: "At IBM, we place a high value on our IP assets and believe this agreement substantiates the value of our portfolio. We're pleased this matter has been resolved through negotiation and licensing. We look forward to a more productive relationship with Amazon in the future." Given that its cash hoard makes it such an attractive target, Microsoft might well benefit from the destruction of the US software patent system, if that happened to be the outcome. (No, I don't think it's a Machiavellian plot.) It would certainly be better for Microsoft than it would for IBM. *** Seattle Post-Intelligencer - May 14, 2007 http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/115329.asp Assessing Microsoft's open-source patent claims by Todd Bishop After suggesting previously that Linux violated its patents, Microsoft got more specific over the weekend, asserting in a Fortune magazine article that it and other open-source programs violate 235 of the company's patents. However, Microsoft is stopping short of saying that it will pursue claims against Linux users. And the company's specificity only goes so far. From the article: [Microsoft's Horacio] Gutierrez refuses to identify specific patents or explain how they're being infringed, lest FOSS advocates start filing challenges to them. But he does break down the total number allegedly violated - 235 - into categories. He says that 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. As Mary Jo Foley notes, background material distributed to the media by Microsoft's public relations firm says that the company was motivated in part by proposed changes in the General Public License (GPL) that are intended to counter Microsoft's intellectual-property deal with Novell. Microsoft is discussing the patent issue even more directly now, with specifics about patent numbers and areas of infringement, in response to continued industry question and concern over the GPLv3's adoption. Unfortunately, for customers, the Free Software Foundation's efforts with GPLv3 while not harming existing contracts can harm the desired interoperability and open exchange that we have increasingly seen between proprietary and open source over the past several years. In response, some people are challenging Microsoft to get more specific. Writes Larry Augustin: "If Microsoft believes that Free and Open Source Software violates any of their patents, let them put those patents forward now, in the light of day, where we can all evaluate them on their merits. If not, then stop trying to bully customers into paying royalties to use Open Source. It's time for Microsoft to put up or shut up." And Groklaw, for one, isn't worried: "In short, I took it that the Novell deal isn't working out as well as they thought, and maybe customers aren't clamoring for those vouchers, and it is harder to find customers than they expected, and now GPLv3 ruined their dreams of wealth from that sort of a deal, so it's FUD time!" Dwight Davis, an industry analyst at Ovum Summit, said via phone this morning that this clearly marks "a major shift in how Microsoft is dealing with Linux." He said he doesn't see Microsoft going so far as to sue businesses that use Linux, many of whom are also its own customers. But the saber-rattling could cause big companies to look again at the software they use and calculate their potential exposure. And in the short run, it could be a boon for Novell, because of Microsoft's covenant under that deal to refrain from suing companies that use Novell's Suse Linux. "It's a risky strategy for Microsoft," Davis said. "It obviously has calculated that the down side it faces is severe enough that it's worth alienating a lot of open-source developers and a lot of customers who have embraced open source over the years."
