This week's 'big' news on OSNews was about software patents. You know, those things that say you cannot stack four pixels on top of one another unless you pay money to the guy who invented four-pixel-stacks (or the guy who bought the guy who invented four-pixel-stacks). A company called IP Innovation, LLC, has sued Novell and Red Hat for infringement of the company's IP portfolio. Software patents are of course generally completely ridiculous, so I will not focus on that here. I want to focus on something else.
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Member since:2006-06-21
Probably Microsoft's too. And you can also add that they seem to be suing Novell now, who is supposed to be playing nice with Microsoft. So how can one still suspect Microsoft is behind this, you'll ask?
Easy. It is THE perfect way of getting friendlies covered and going after the real target: Red Hat. Novell will settle out of court, like Microsoft did, whereas Red Hat will not and can not, as a matter of principle. But they (Microsoft + Novell) will get to claim having been targets, to place themselves above suspicion. Hey, if the killer shot at me too I can't possibly be in on it, right?
Red Hat is the perfect target. All other proeminent Linux-related businesses either made a deal (Novell, Linspire), or are too small to be worth the trouble (should they either pay up or be taken down), or too big to be touched (IBM).
Member since:2006-03-10
*If* Novell settle out-of-court for a derisory sum in compensation, plus an equally piddling (or nonexistent) ongoing licensing fee*, I'll have some time for this point of view.
In the meantime, it's nothing but speculation; we can cut it away with Ockham's razor and we're left with the perfectly reasonable assumption that a greedy IP troll -- with no sinister master lurking in the shadows -- is rattling a few cages.
(* although if it's really a fix, why not go to court, have Novell "throw the fight" and demand an agreed (not too severe) sum in damages? A judgement would be a lot more useful in going after the other Linux players, irrespective of size)
Member since:
2005-07-01
3) Suddenly an unknown patent harvesting firm, chocked to the brim with ex-Microsoft employee's appears threatening *only* *NIX vendors. If these patents were so broad, then come how they haven't attacked Microsoft, Apple or any other vendor?
They /DID/ sue Apple and Microsoft.
Apple's case was settled out-of-court.