Is free Linux legal? (MS says it)

[Bill Mc Coy]

Steve Ballmer has reissued Microsoft's patent threat against Linux, warning open-source vendors that they must respect his company's intellectual property.
In a clear threat against open-source users, Ballmer repeated his earlier assertions that open source "is not free," referring to the possibility that Microsoft may sue Linux sellers. Microsoft has suggested that the Linux operating system infringes some of its intellectual property.
link to ballmer threat speech

will microsoft sue UBUNTU and SOLARIS beacuse they are free OS.

[ February 24, 2007: Message edited by: dan dunst ]

[ February 24, 2007: Message edited by: dan dunst ]

[ February 24, 2007: Message edited by: dan dunst ]

[Edit by Dave - Removed the shouting]
[ February 24, 2007: Message edited by: David O'Meara ]

[David O'Meara]

Hopefully a tactic that will turn against them. I'm not sure how it works in other countries, but there is something the shops refer to as the 'Microsoft tax' where MS forces the shop to include the price of their OS whether it is installed or not. I don't have a problem buying a machine and paying for the OS license if I use it, but I don't know how they have gotten away with this practice for so long.

[Bill Mc Coy]

does MS mean every free linux vendor should pay royalty to it?
does programming OS is sole fiefdom of MS

[Arno Reper]

Mister Ballmer should be very carefull...A patent war would be disastrous for Microsoft...

Microsoft loses case
Battle over patents
23 Feb 07 - A San Diego court has ordered Microsoft to pay a French phone equipment company $1.52 billion (�777 million), after ruling they had infringed audio patents.

Alcatel-Lucent sued Microsoft over the use of two patents that allowed users to convert audio into MP3 files. The ruling is the largest ever for patent infringement.

Microsoft claimed it had licensed the MP3 technology from a German firm, but the court ruled in Alcatel-Lucent's favour.

Microsoft said it will appeal against the decision it describes as 'unsupported by the law or the facts'.

Jacqueline Springer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20070223_microsoft.shtml

Is catched the one who give lessons...

[Ulf Dittmer]

Note that he never says what patent Linux alledgedly infringes upon. In my opinion that's because it doesn't, and he engages in pure FUD.
[ February 25, 2007: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]

[marc weber]

Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer:
...pure FUD.

Vaporsuit.

[Arno Reper]

Here is the community answer :
http://www.showusthecode.com/
We 'll see...
He should first debug Vista before looking at other's code

[paul wheaton]

I fart in your general direction!

[Bill Mc Coy]

And now MS comes with a list of 235 patents it says Linux violates

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.

And battle most likely shifts to patent office
Page LInk

[rohit leeta]

Interesting articles. Obviously M$ tries to use these patents as cards. I wonder the result of this..

[kumar shinde]

it seems microsoft are crazy for money...... i think they should make a seprate site for patents disputes so that open source project guys can check if the have violated ANY PATENT of microsoft on this site ... maybe seprate court only for microsoft patent disputes...

My friends working in MicroSoft have told ALTAVISTA was copied from LINUX itself .... this people from MS copied the open source code and used the same code for ALTAVISTA....eek eek:

really sounds funny ..... this crazy people are jealous of open source projects.....

[kumar shinde]

sorry buddies WINDOWS VISTA and not ALTAVISTA......

[kumar shinde]

sorry buddies in the previous reply it had been mistakenly written ALTAVISTA instead of WINDOWS VISTA ......

[Peter Rooke]

Not again: SCO Unix

Currently Linux has been taking market share away from UNIX vendors - MircoSwipe must be doing this as they expect that in a few years Linux distro's will start to have an impact on their desktop market. Having used the some of the lastest desktop Linux distro's - I believe that in a few years this could be the case - hope so
[ May 14, 2007: Message edited by: Peter Rooke ]

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Originally posted by dan dunst:
And now MS comes with a list of 235 patents it says Linux violates

[snip]

And battle most likely shifts to patent office
Page LInk

Wonderful quote from that article: "Gutierrez refuses to identify specific patents or explain how they're being infringed, lest FOSS advocates start filing challenges to them."

Interesting concept :roll:

- Andrew

[David McCombs]

Recent supreme court rulings have happily put software patents on notice.

The rules for invalidating one is much more relaxed, and some of the articles suggested that the court is looking to get rid of them entirely.

That would be a great development if it ever happens.