Microsoft has said it will not sue Linux users with regards to the company's patent claims. "We're not litigating. If we wanted to we would have done so years ago," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's VP for intellectual property and licensing, in an interview. When asked for a reply regarding the claim of Microsoft that the Linux kernel infringes 42 of its patents, Linus Torvalds replied: "Can you get a list of which ones? Before that, it's just FUD, and there's not a whole lot I can say or do. Is there prior art? Are they trivial and obvious to one skilled in the art? Would we need to work around them? We don't know, because all I've heard so far is just FUD. If MS actually wanted us to not infringe their patents, they'd tell us. Since they don't, that must mean that they actually prefer the FUD."
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Member since:2006-01-14
You (and Linus) are exactly right. At this point, there are only 2 possibilities. Microsoft's allegations are either True or they are False. Without them being specific, are we supposed to assume they are are "True"? That's what Microsoft would like us to do. Therein lies the FUD. The community is smart enough to know to assume the allegations are "False". It's the old "innocent until proven guilty" thing. The danger is not whether they are True or False. The danger is that the larger population will not reason this out.
Member since:2007-02-22
The community is smart enough to know to assume the allegations are "False".
I hope so they assume the allegations are false, too. That way, the 'community' (by that, you mean 'businesses that develop it') won't prepare for a lawsuit, will have no defense prepared when it comes down, all major OSS attacks on legit software will be pushed from the industry, and some legit competition to Windows can develop.
Edited 2007-05-16 13:15
Member since:
2005-07-06
They are up to something: they're waging a major FUD campaign against the free software developers and community. Don't you think that if they really had something in their hands they'd have already used it? I think Linus pretty much summed it all: until they come up with something, it's pure and simple FUD, and that's exactly what they want.
Rehdon