So sue me, Microsoft (and finish him!)

Wow. It's Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which hundreds of IT professionals tell Microsoft to, "Put up or shut up." Not to mention American Dad vs. Family Guy...

Jeremy Kirk has the scoop:

In an unconventional request, some users of Linux and other open-source software are inviting Microsoft Corp. to sue them. The users have put their names on a public wiki as a way of protesting Microsoft's recent claims that Linux and other open-source software infringe on at least 235 of its patents. They've listed the open-source OSes and software they use, along with frequently snarky comments.
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Microsoft maintains it has no immediate plans to sue, although it is encouraging companies to license its intellectual property. Open-source advocates on the list want Microsoft to prove that it has valid patent claims against Linux. Microsoft has been evasive about details, saying broadly that the patents involve the Linux kernel and user interface; the OpenOffice productivity suite and other open-source applications, including e-mail programs.

The horse's mouth is Christian Einfeldt:

I am a lawyer, and I am not impressed by Microsoft's patent infringement allegations against GNU Linux users. However, I can't offer anyone any legal advice, because I don't practice IP law, and lawyers are not supposed to offer blanket legal advice on websites. So this is not legal advice, nor even a legal opinion
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This page is intended to be a place where people would like to join together to invite a Microsoft patent infringement lawsuit. If you would like to invite a visit by Brad Smith, Microsoft's head litigator, please feel free to add your name here ... Microsoft's patent threat is another example of the truth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's saying that the only thing to fear is fear itself. Here's why...

• Microsoft has succeeded as a company because they have mostly refined the innovations that other companies pioneered...
• GNU and Linux were inspired by Unix, not Windows, and Unix is much older than Windows...
• Microsoft once actually sold Unix licenses, called Xenix (which they licensed from SCO)...
• SCO actually owned Xenix, and you know that if they could have asserted patent claims against GNU Linux they would have done so...
• Linus Torvalds ... claims that most of the important innovations pertaining to operating system functions lost patent protection long ago...
• IT lawyer Andy Updegrove has said that he is not all that impressed with Microsoft's patent claims...
• Eben Moglen, the lawyer who wrote the GPL with Richard Stallman, says that Novell has tricked Microsoft into shooting down its own patent claims...
• Moglen also believes that Microsoft will not sue because suing is expensive and commits Microsoft to a course of action that is unpredictable...

David Chartier recaps:

MS was apparently funding the SCO patent litigation efforts against IBM and their use of Linux.

The latest theory ... is that Microsoft is simply trying to scare OSS-slinging businesses into rethinking their position. Perhaps Redmond can convince these companies to rejoin the red, green, blue and yellow side of the fence - or at least into OSS that is sanctioned by Microsoft and/or Novell.

It's still early on in this whole patent infringement situation Microsoft has drudged up again, but the company surely isn't hurting for cash with which to fuel their army of lawyers. Still, during a time where Microsoft's reputation is likely at an all-time low and users are switching in record numbers to free and/or fruitier pastures, pulling a stunt like suing users or even businesses that pick up copies of software they haven't yet proven is infringing on anything isn't the brightest move they could make.

Meanwhile, Mary Jo has her mits on another Microsoft-sponsored study:

Microsoft is expending an awful lot of time and energy to try to derail the next version of the Free Software Foundation’s General Public License (GPL). On May 22, yet another in a long line of Microsoft-commissioned open-source studies made its debut ... You probably can guess what the study concludes ... The Bill of Rights study found that rank-and-file open-source developers don’t want the GPL to dictate policy on patent-protection deals, like the one forged last year between Microsoft and Novell
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This was a study based on 34 responses that was conducted more than a month before Microsoft decided to go public with its 235-patents-infringed claim ... I’m stunned that after taking a number of seemingly positive steps vis-a-vis its thinking and strategy around open source, Microsoft has decided to blow away any bridges it built in a matter of weeks ... This newest Microsoft-sponsored study adds insult to injury. The company’s decision to go public with an alleged count of patent infringements has backfired and turned into a three-ring circus.

Pamela Jones groks and scoffs:

Microsoft ... targeted specific programmers, avoiding headliners, so to speak, but they don't tell how they were chosen. If I were Microsoft, I'd look for folks who really don't much like the patent clause in the GPLv3 draft or the GPL either. I don't know if they did that. The study says they were looking for quiet folks who are unrepresented in the noisy debate. Right. The silent majority gets trotted out again. Didn't SCO have them behind them, the last time they showed up in public?

[Microsoft] sent out emails to 354 programmers, some of whom are never going to use the GPL anyway, like the Apache developers, who are great guys but they already have their own license ... at least one response sounds like the guy's on a job interview at Microsoft ... all they care about is license compatibility and they like the BSD-like licenses and often choose them and they don't like an organization like FSF telling them what to do, that they just want to solve problems, blah blah
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What do you know? Microsoft paid people to find what it was looking for and they did? Is that a crazy dovetail or what? ... Since when do folks who do studies tell us what we should do with the study's results? A study with an agenda. How could that ever happen?
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Seriously, the more Microsoft bashes the GPL and hires others to do it, the clearer it becomes that the only real safety from Microsoft is the GPL. Think about it. They obviously have, and judging from this study, I'd say they think they can't achieve World Domination if that icky GPL is allowed to stand in the way. Because it does.

This Anonymous Coward noticed an interesting angle:

Microsoft will lose the right to sue ... If you find that your patent has been violated, you have to sue in a timely manner. You can't wait or the court will pitch out your case because of the doctrine of laches. I suppose someone should ask them how they intend to get around that problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity)

Ubuntu honcho Mark Shuttleworth muses:

I don’t think Microsoft is the real threat, and in fact, I think Microsoft and the Linux community will actually end up fighting on the same side of this issue. I’m in favour of patents in general, but not software or business method patents ... software patents hinder, rather than help, innovation in the software industry.

And I’m pretty certain that, within a few years, Microsoft themselves will be strong advocates against software patents. Why? Because Microsoft is irrevocably committed to shipping new software every year, and software patents represent landmines in their roadmap which they are going to step on, like it or not, with increasing regularity. They can’t sit on the sidelines of the software game - they actually have to ship new products. And every time they do that, they risk stepping on a patent landmine. They are a perfect target - they have deep pockets, and they have no option but to negotiate a settlement, or go to court, when confronted with a patent suit.
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So, Microsoft is not the real patent threat to Linux. The real threat to Linux is the same as the real threat to Microsoft, and that is a patent suit from a person or company that is NOT actually building software, but has filed patents on ideas that the GNU project and Microsoft are equally likely to be implementing ... It will be a small company, possibly just a holding company, that has a single patent or small portfolio, and goes after people selling Linux-based devices.
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So it’s not the patent-holders who are the problem, it’s the patent system.

And tamgo scoffs:

Is Microsoft just using these patent infringement allegations to further shed shadow over the Linux community? I think so. There really is no plan to sue anyone. They just need to do something to hurt Linux on the public relations front. They have been getting too much light recently. This has to be stopped before the snowflake rolls into an avalanche! You know what Microsoft? This may just be a classic case of too little, too late.

Buffer overflow:

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Previously in IT Blogwatch

• New IBM CPU is double-quick (and a blotch twig)
• Wi-Fi causes child cancer? (and fair-y tale use)
• FCC OKs iPhone, but iPhony delay (and moon fishing)
• Amazon antagonizes Apple with DRM-free music (and but is it art?)
• Sun's CEO slaps down Microsoft (and power-tool dragsters)
• Older posts

And finally... American Dad vs. Family Guy, Kung-Fu Turbo! Hyper-Mega Edition

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.