While Microsoft may cast the Nov. 2 patent cooperation agreement it pushed on new partner Novell Inc. as a way to protect corporate users of the SUSE Linux operating system from potential lawsuits, CIOs today said they weren't worried in the first place.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Deny all you want that there are infringements, it's highly unlikely that Linux distributions are free of any MS patents.
We could probably find one or two. But thing is, we could easily strip some or most of them out and live with it and let MS loose every possible grip they eventually might think they had, and on the other hand, we could probably also identify some parts in MS products that could be questionable. Probably nobody wants a patent war here, the tactic is probably to implant some amount of doubt and try to squeeze the rein a bit to show who's the gang leader here, and eventually grab some money.
Member since:2006-01-02
Member since:2006-01-19
Well, I know that such an agreement would have to look like: Redhat, IBM, OSDL, ... agree they will not sue Microsoft or their customers for patent infringement.
In turn, Microsoft agrees to not sue any distributor or user of FOSS for distributing or using said FOSS.
The FSF and many others would definitely agree to such a contract, but Microsoft will not, because everyone else could still sue THEM.
Microsoft does not enter into contracts which leave them at a slight disadvantage. Microsoft also does not trust someone, they are a sad lot.
Member since:2005-10-02
Member since:
2005-08-26
Instead of continuing your pissfests about this, get the major Linux vendors and FSF to talk to MS to either get a list of infringements or get a blanket statement that MS won't sue them over any possible infringement, if there is any.
Deny all you want that there are infringements, it's highly unlikely that Linux distributions are free of any MS patents.
Now, if MS WANTED to sue, they would have done that long ago. I guess it's hard for people to understand that they don't WANT to do that.
Get an agreement or something and be done with it instead of continuing the pissfest.