To summarize, Microsoft is starting to get really antsy about patents. Ok, that's not news - they've always been patent-aware. But now they're starting to become a little more public about it. This is one of the more convoluted pieces of legal conjecture I've read in a while, though the author, Roger Parloff, does an excellent job of boiling down an inherently complicated issue into a relatively easy piece to digest.
Microsoft takes on the free world
Here's the nut: Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe.
It appears there's this technology patent hate triangle going on between the Free Software Foundation, proprietary software developers (Microsoft being the #1 example here) and tweeners - businesses that are interested in open source, but under a more business-friendly licensing structure.
It sounds to me like everyone has a card to play, they're going to play them soon, and I'm having difficulty predicting the outcome; I think this will be decided in a court (or an entire court circuit), and no matter the ruling, a precedent will be set.
Where do I stand? That's easy - being the selfish bastard that I am, I stand wherever I need to be standing in order to not have to pay for Linux. You figure out where that is :)
Holy crap! I just realized I may be infringing on the copyrights of Zero Wing with my blog title! Don't tell them where I live; if they can't deliver a subpoena, I can't be sued, right?
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