I’m 100% with Tim Bray on this:
Litigate or shut up!
For those still in the dark, Microsoft claims that free software like Linux […] violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users (like you and me).
The only little issue with this is that software is not patentable :-)
As confirmed by Lawrence Lessig, Bill Gates himself said:
“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.
The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.”
Excluding future competitors! Shut up, Bill!
That’s one hell of a comment to make, telling people that Linux violates 235 patents, only to be counter-argumented by Bill Gates himself! That’s so nice!
Anyways, I don’t think Microsoft is liking the harsh competition from Google and the free-ness of Open Office. That’s why it’s starting to toss and turn and firing litigation-cases in every direction. Or because maybe people are quite reluctant at switching to Vista with its resource-hogging and restriction-imposing hugeness? :D
Let’s wait and see how this all turns out… (most probably M$ losing face again.)
Yup. Mike’s comment (1st paragraph) on Tim Bray’s post is right on the mark.
When you are desperate, you do desperate things.
Same for Bill i guess.
makes me think about burn all gifs day for some reason.
Hard to say if MS is losing the battle!
It’s not Mr Gates’ fault at all! It’s all about the survival of the fittest… as simple as that.
WHo does not want to survive another decade. Win by all means is perhaps MS’s answer to that problem.