m$ wants royalties on sketchy patents

[Dan Lund]

I'm sure its been tried before :)


On 5/14/07, tuna at supertunaman.com <tuna at supertunaman.com> wrote:
> Steve Ballmer seriously needs to learn something... Who's up for a
> PLUG-sponsored trip to Washington to jump Steve Ballmer? :D
>
> > moin moin,
> >
> > Microsoft hasn't come through on what patents are being used because once
> > they do it will be shown that Microsoft is wrong about the patent use (
> > invalid patents, patents not actually being used, etc. ) or the Free
> > Software community will work around the patents.
> >
> > Maybe software patents will even finally be thrown out. Software patents
> > aren't valid in Europe, China or India[0], so the Microsoft claims is
> > holding back the US economy and ceding an innovative advantage to other
> > countries.
> >
> > The purpose of patents is to keep others from using the patents. Microsoft
> > not saying which patents are being infringed interferes with the Free
> > Software community removing any offending code. The Free Software
> > community tries to abide by copyright and patent law. Microsoft has been
> > sued multiple times for specific copyright infringement[1]. It needs to
> > list specific patent infringements or stop whining.
> >
> > "Microsoft's explanation is that this balancing payment was calculated
> > as it would be in any cross-licensing deal: Novell has valuable
> > network-computing patents that Microsoft products may infringe, and
> > since Microsoft's products bring in so much more revenue than Novell's,
> > Microsoft owed a balance.[2]"
> >
> > Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says, "What's fair is fair.[2]" Interesting
> > phrase from the CEO of a company that 1) has been convicted multiple times
> > of illegally maintaining a monopoly[3], 2) has successfully sued multiple
> > times for copyright infringement, 3) admits it has infringed on patents
> > from others.
> >
> > And, of course, groklaw already has something better than what I can come
> > up with[4].
> >
> > Gotta love, "4. What kind of companies threaten to hurt you if you don't
> > pay them protection money? Do you want to do business with that type of
> > company? Can Microsoft risk that inevitable reaction?"
> >
> > [0] Any other countries that should be listed? What countries do allow
> > software patents?
> >
> > [1] Anyone got a list of the copyright infringement suits m$ has lost?
> >
> > [2]
> >
> http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm
> >
> > [3] Anyone got a list of the specific convictions and a listing of how
> > they've
> >
> > [4] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070513234519615
> >
> > ciao,
> >
> > der.hans
> > --
> > #  https://www.LuftHans.com/        http://www.CiscoLearning.org/
> > #  veni, vidi, wiki - I came, I saw, I documented
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