No threat from Microsoft!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131806/article.html
Emanual Lasker was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921. He
has an oft-quoted maxim that is very applicable to Microsoft's current patent
actions. According to Lasker, "The threat is stronger than the execution."
In the past, when Microsoft kept quiet about its patent arsenal, the threat
seemed real. Now that Microsoft is posturing about executing its patent
threat, we can see just how feeble that threat really was!
I feel no sympathy for those bastards but they have really put themselves in
a bind now. Just who are they going to sue? Their customers? Yeah, that's
really working fantastically for SCO. Redhat, Google or IBM? I don't think so;
those companies have deep pockets and would not back down from a fight, one
Microsoft cannot win. At best they can hope backroom politics, by lobbying
governments, might be intimidating.
The FSF has determined that Microsoft is now a distributor of Linux (via its
deal with Novell) and thus subject to the patent licensing clauses of GPL2.
I doubt very much whether MS would have the appetite to challenge that in a
court of law even though such status undermines their strategy against Open
Source. And against Open Office, too.
Monkey-boy can bluster about violating their precious Intellectual Property
(tm) but he's not being taken seriously. There is likely too much patent
infringement vulnerability on Microsoft's side for them to withstand a close
scrutiny by, say IBM. Also, if they actually identify their own patents
being infringed they know from the example of Groklaw that pretty much the
whole open source community will focus on finding prior art to invalidate the
patents.
No, they are not in an enviable position right now. And they themselves have
put them there. They have exposed their own weakness. They are no longer
intimidating. Their actions have provided even more credibility to open
source.
Lasker was right.
Emanual Lasker was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921. He
has an oft-quoted maxim that is very applicable to Microsoft's current patent
actions. According to Lasker, "The threat is stronger than the execution."
In the past, when Microsoft kept quiet about its patent arsenal, the threat
seemed real. Now that Microsoft is posturing about executing its patent
threat, we can see just how feeble that threat really was!
I feel no sympathy for those bastards but they have really put themselves in
a bind now. Just who are they going to sue? Their customers? Yeah, that's
really working fantastically for SCO. Redhat, Google or IBM? I don't think so;
those companies have deep pockets and would not back down from a fight, one
Microsoft cannot win. At best they can hope backroom politics, by lobbying
governments, might be intimidating.
The FSF has determined that Microsoft is now a distributor of Linux (via its
deal with Novell) and thus subject to the patent licensing clauses of GPL2.
I doubt very much whether MS would have the appetite to challenge that in a
court of law even though such status undermines their strategy against Open
Source. And against Open Office, too.
Monkey-boy can bluster about violating their precious Intellectual Property
(tm) but he's not being taken seriously. There is likely too much patent
infringement vulnerability on Microsoft's side for them to withstand a close
scrutiny by, say IBM. Also, if they actually identify their own patents
being infringed they know from the example of Groklaw that pretty much the
whole open source community will focus on finding prior art to invalidate the
patents.
No, they are not in an enviable position right now. And they themselves have
put them there. They have exposed their own weakness. They are no longer
intimidating. Their actions have provided even more credibility to open
source.
Lasker was right.