"Microsoft wants royalties for open-source software"

[Francesco Ugolini]

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...

This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the internet.

Who is scared?

I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.

Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.

Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"

I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
in its DNA those words).

Regards

Francesco Ugolini
-- 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini

[hymno]

2007/5/14, Francesco Ugolini <fugolini(a)fedoraproject.org&gt;:
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...
>
>  This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the
>  internet.
>
>  Who is scared?
>
>  I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.
>
>  Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.
>
>  Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"
>
>  I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
>  to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
>  in its DNA those words).
>
>  Regards
>
>  Francesco Ugolini
>  --
>  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini
>
>  --
>  Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>  

Actually, I think someone in the US should sue Microsoft for damages on
grounds of slander or libel or whatever it's called in the US legal system.

You see, they have been saying this repeatedly over time, without specifying
it or without any lawsuits.
One could claim in court that this way, MS (being such a.. prominent player)
is giving F/OSS users/makers a bad name in software land, scaring customers
that don't know any better away from using F/OSS, thus damaging reputations
and affecting revenues.
All it takes is a clever attorney to make it happen - force MS to put their
cards on the table, or just shut their hypocritical mouth. :)

As a European, I'm not *yet* likely to be affected by any of this, but you
never know how this patent this will develop...

herman

[Francesco Ugolini]

Me too, as European citizen we are immune by such policies, but it could
real help people understand the situation.

Herman Meester ha scritto:
>  
>  
>  2007/5/14, Francesco Ugolini <fugolini(a)fedoraproject.org
>  <mailto:[e-mail]>>:
>  
>     
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...
>     
> <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...
>  
>      This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the
>      internet.
>  
>      Who is scared?
>  
>      I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.
>  
>      Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.
>  
>      Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"
>  
>      I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
>      to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
>      in its DNA those words).
>  
>      Regards
>  
>      Francesco Ugolini
>      --
>      http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini
>  
>      --
>      Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>      Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>      <mailto:[e-mail]>
>      https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>      <https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list>
>  
>  
>  
>  Actually, I think someone in the US should sue Microsoft for damages on
>  grounds of slander or libel or whatever it's called in the US legal system.
>  
>  You see, they have been saying this repeatedly over time, without
>  specifying it or without any lawsuits.
>  One could claim in court that this way, MS (being such a.. prominent
>  player) is giving F/OSS users/makers a bad name in software land,
>  scaring customers that don't know any better away from using F/OSS, thus
>  damaging reputations and affecting revenues.
>  All it takes is a clever attorney to make it happen - force MS to put
>  their cards on the table, or just shut their hypocritical mouth. :)
>  
>  As a European, I'm not *yet* likely to be affected by any of this, but
>  you never know how this patent this will develop...
>  
>  herman
>   
-- 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini

[Jeroen van Meeuwen]

Francesco Ugolini wrote:
>  Me too, as European citizen we are immune by such policies, but it
> could
>  real help people understand the situation.
>
>     
We're not immune, we're just outside US jurisdiction.

-kanarip

[Saadaldine AlSaidi]

Hello All,
I guess as always microsoft will try everything thing it has to stand against 
the vast spread of open-source operating systems and software, they clam 
their patent violation on some softwares by relaying on English words and 
even key-board shortcuts. 
Lucky, up till now no court, not even the American ones could or hopefully 
ever will give them the right or make them win a case.

--------
SaadAlDine AlSaidi

On Monday 14 May 2007 22:09, Francesco Ugolini wrote:
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...
> onomyName=development&articleId=9019238&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_top
>
>  This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the internet.
>
>  Who is scared?
>
>  I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.
>
>  Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.
>
>  Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"
>
>  I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
>  to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
>  in its DNA those words).
>
>  Regards
>
>  Francesco Ugolini
>  --
>  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini

[Rajesh Pandey]

Microsoft says : *"This is not a case of some accidental, unknowing
infringement. ...There is an overwhelming number of patents being
infringed,"  *

and :
*The spokesman pointed out that a free software group called the Open Source
Risk Management Group itself had confirmed via an August 2004 study (PDF
format) that Linux could be in violation of 283 patents, though none of
those patents had been proven in court at the time.

**
*These are not new things that Microsoft likes to play with.. Always trying
to down the morale of FSF and Open Source Communities..  They are in search
of new words which could track the OSCs.. But millions of users can't be
stopped at once.. Microsoft JUST CAN CONTROL WINDOWS AND ONLY MICROSOFT
WINDOWS. Not anything else.. not the will, heart, and minds of
millions of users.





On 5/15/07, SaadAlDine AlSaidi <omen(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; wrote:
>  Hello All,
>  I guess as always microsoft will try everything thing it has to stand
>  against
>  the vast spread of open-source operating systems and software, they clam
>  their patent violation on some softwares by relaying on English words and
>  even key-board shortcuts.
>  Lucky, up till now no court, not even the American ones could or hopefully
>  ever will give them the right or make them win a case.
>
>  --------
>  SaadAlDine AlSaidi
>
>  On Monday 14 May 2007 22:09, Francesco Ugolini wrote:
>  > http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command
>  =viewArticleBasic&tax
>  >onomyName=development&articleId=9019238&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_top
>  >
>  > This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the
>  internet.
>  >
>  > Who is scared?
>  >
>  > I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.
>  >
>  > Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.
>  >
>  > Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"
>  >
>  > I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
>  > to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
>  > in its DNA those words).
>  >
>  > Regards
>  >
>  > Francesco Ugolini
>  > --
>  > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FrancescoUgolini
>
>  --
>  Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>

[Bryan Smith]

On Tue, 2007-05-15 at 09:21 +0300, SaadAlDine AlSaidi wrote:
>  Hello All,
>  I guess as always microsoft will try everything thing it has to stand against 
>  the vast spread of open-source operating systems and software, they clam 
>  their patent violation on some softwares by relaying on English words and 
>  even key-board shortcuts. 
>  Lucky, up till now no court, not even the American ones could or hopefully 
>  ever will give them the right or make them win a case. 
First off, there was a demonization (e-Week?) of HP merely stating that
patents are an issue in the US.  HP has been openly licensing their
patents for their GPL donations as much as IBM, Red Hat and others.  HP
has only been warning that people in community-developed software need
to knowledgeable -- especially US developers -- not that any
community-developed software (including Linux) necessarily violates any
patents.  Popular, community-developed software developers tend to be
more knowledgeable than most commercial software developers out of
necessity -- their code is exposed.

Second, Microsoft is _not_ going to be suing anyone from their own
words.  This is FUD, pure and simple -- and Microsoft is counting on the
ignorance of people or, worse yet, demonizations of it as an American
company (please, don't fall into the trap of US corporation-bashing, it
doesn't address the real IP/ownership/licensing issues which are _easy_
to do in reality).  Microsoft _knows_ that if it starts suing Linux,
IBM** -- the 8,000lbs. patent gorilla (who is not always a "friend" of
pro-Linux companies (or clients who buy from their competitors) when
they cross IBM's market, don't get me started ;) -- would smack
Microsoft so far back that they would never recover.  There is enough of
a "counter patent portfolio" between various Linux companies that
Microsoft would quickly find itself overburdened with lawsuits and,
possibly, having to pull products off the shelf -- including its
profitable Windows and Office.  Microsoft not about to slit its own
throat.

Third and more specific, on the point that Microsoft complains about
countless of their patents in OpenOffice.org, people forget that
OpenOffice.org is a copyright of Sun Microsystems.  Sun has a
cross-patent/code license with Microsoft circa 2003 -- I mean, does
anyone realize why OpenOffice.org got far more compatible with newer
Microsoft Office v10/11 (XP/2003) as of about 2004?  The license between
Microsft and Sun!  ;)  So Microsoft can_not_ go after OpenOffice.org,
let alone any commercial licensees, and it's very unlikely they'd have
any stance on anyone who makes a LGPL derivative of it either (although
we can't know for sure since the terms of their license is not public).
It's the same reason why the whole whoopla on the OpenXML import/export
is a non-issue as well.

Lastly, as a hard-core American Libertarian and pro-Capitalist, I have
done my part to educate people on community-developed software.  That
includes the fact that Linux, like other community-developed software,
is an individual choice developers and corporates make.  That is not
only extremely compatible with capitalism, but a guaranteed right of
assembly.  In fact, it's far more American than government-created
corporate monopolies, which is the facist (literally) economic model.
In fact, the US basically invented the labor union (itself a free
enterprise community in a capitalist market), and the labor union only
became an "issue" in our capitalist society when it was
government-mandated/protected (which is where the socialist aspect
creates an unbalance, because it removed individual choice and free
market balance).

Remember, Red Hat** is an American company too, and they understand the
balance of community and capitalism, and their entire "we give away
everything we do, no proprietary IP here" attitude is why they are
virtually the _only_ major Linux company that is fully GPLv3**
compatible.  Red Hat is the ultimate American ideal of the "provide for
the common defense, promote the general welfare."  I always like to
point out the contrasting, but complementary terms "Provide" (defense)
and "Promote" (welfare).  I won't go any further than to point that out
-- but it's exactly what Red Hat does, as well as -- of its own free
will -- additionally providing for our welfare as the biggest, single
code contributor in the Linux community (not withstanding the copyright
sign-overs to the FSF collective).

Get out and get these facts known!  Stomp the FUD!

**NOTE:  Some of my blog articles on this ...

The Five Types of Linux Corporations:  
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/11/five-types-of-linux-corporations.html  

Software, IP, Licensing and GPL 2 v. 3:  
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/11/software-ip-licensing-and-gpl-2-v-3....  

-- Bryan J. Smith
   American, Capitalist and Pro-Community as an Individual Choice


-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:[e-mail]   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------
        Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution

[Marc Wiriadisastra]

Francesco Ugolini wrote:
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...
>  
>  This is only an article from the hundreds that i found trough the internet.
>  
>  Who is scared?
>  
>  I think it could really help Open Source communities grow.
>  
>  Stop to fight against each other, just follow our goals and our ideals.
>  
>  Seneca, a Latin writer, said: "The best ideas are common property"
>  
>  I trust completely in those words, and for this reason i will continue
>  to trust in Open Source and to help this trough Fedora Project (who has
>  in its DNA those words).
>  
>  Regards
>  
>  Francesco Ugolini 
Every now and again Microsoft likes to start a fear campaign that if you 
buy linux or use linux you run the risk of getting sued.  What this does 
is provide companies with a check point to stop and think what if they 
are right.  It won't affect a lot of the users but it will affect the 
corporates.

Sadly until there is a lawsuit people will still believe Microsoft over 
Open Source Software developers. The local guy who installed the 
computer agrees with Microsoft and the developers do not have a store 
front where they can explain that what Microsoft said has not been 
tested in court so it may or may not be true.

The success of Corporate Linux vendors will slowly bypass the comments 
from Microsoft but even then its a long struggle.  I personally believe 
wholeheartedly that whatever version of linux you have if there is a 
company backing it you should support them.  My belief stems from the 
fact that these corporates are advertising linux and its benefits. 
Everyone in the linux community benefits over time and community groups 
usually can't compete with the corporate dollars.

My $0.02

Marc

[Gain Paolo Mureddu]

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If the so called "IP infringement" were true, and knowing the record
of Microsoft in regards to this, wouldn't they have sued Red Hat
already... like years ago? It is always the same case, some PR guy
from Microsoft (even if it is Ballmer himself) steps up and says
"Linux infringes on Microsoft's patents and IP" the genius (because it
is genius in a twisted kind of way) of this is that they will NEVER
tell which patents and /or other IP does Linux (as a whole) infringes.
They could even claim that it does infringe the multimedia patents for
their file formats, etc... But they also know that such programs
aren't installed by default, so it is only a smoke curtain to try and
stop people (corporations) from adopting Linux.... (I hate the
example, but it is much like the RIAA, menacing to sue individuals,
rather than those companies providing the software). I wonder if there
would be Class-Action suit against Microsoft over these claims and
then force them to either shut the heck up or show which patents does
"Linux" infringe. I live outside the US, so I couldn't possibly join
to the Class-Action (though I'd love to) and stop this nonsense once
and for all.
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