theinquirer.net — According to the Wall Street Journal the meeting included such big names and IBM, Red Hat and Sony. Their plan is to avert legal threats that might discourage the adoption of Linux by buying up a set of 22 patents formerly owned by Microsoft.
Sep 8, 2009 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountSep 9, 2009
The last think Microfud wants to do is decrypt their patent ridden, copyright breaching stolen code to the public.Everyone knows half of windows has been stolen, borrowed against the license permit (e.g) non commercial and ripped directly from people who tried to sell them something and ended up being shafted.The Windows Registration tool - core code and design principals. In court verdict pending on an appeal - M$ lost the case! - Australian inventor - stolen Direct X - 1990's game programmers workaround for s**tty redmond latency - Australian game factory invents - microfuk steals.Network code for net deploy and server - copied from open source and apple.Windows Explorer GUI rendering - StolenIs that a KDE rendering engine on windows 7?Word - in courtThat leaves the kernel - wonder what's under that hood huh?
Closed AccountSep 9, 2009
Kind of like when Joseph Smith had a list of additional commandments - given to him by and angel - from Jesus - that he could not show anyone.
theonlywizdumSep 9, 2009
Exactly, but with less crazy involved.
Closed AccountSep 9, 2009
Microsoft went around inviting people? I read the article as saying that they flogged them off to some generic investment group who then auctioned them; doesn't seem like there were any other bidders.
jqp123Sep 9, 2009
Since copyright doesn't apply to recipes and any patent expired long ago, what would those proprietary rights be?
rpgmakrSep 10, 2009
RIAA is doing well.
earthforce1Sep 13, 2009
I think they haven't done it because it will involve the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario. Other companies with a vested interest in Linux (i.e. IBM) pull out their patent portfolio and go for an injunction against MS products. I wonder how many compiler patents alone IBM has in their possession?
johnnysoftwareNov 12, 2009
Well, here is the thing. This year, Microsoft:1. Compalined US taxes are too high for him to be based in the US (7% for corps.) and it wants to leave.2. Patented a bunch of software things.3. Fired their US and UK programmers in droves, especially right after Windows 7 shipped.4. Hired programmers in India.5. Was unable to import Windows 7 retail into India because of a new software tax trade barrier.So they want to move to a country that taxes them a special software tax, which the US doesn't. India's government is huge and most of its people are poor so corporate income tax must be really high. But they say they want to leave US because taxes are too high.US patents are not goiing to do Microsoft much good in India, just in US market. MS-Windows it not a good seller in India, nor MS Office. To sell at all they chopped prices of both down to like $30. But still they are filing US patents like mad.Seems like US is "scorched earth" in Microsoft's playbook.
designtoyouDec 12, 2009
I don't like software patents, sorry.<a class="user" href="http://www.getguaranteedvisitors.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getguaranteedvisitors.com/</a>