04.18.08

More Legal Trouble for a Microsoft Patent Partner (Fraud); Google Stumbles

Posted in Fraud, FSF, GNU/Linux, Google, GPL, Microsoft, OSI, Samsung at 6:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

One of Microsoft’s lesser-known partners, which also signed a software patent deal involving Linux, is Samsung. We wrote about Samsung's corruption allegations just a fortnight ago and also provided many contextual links for background about this deal.

The New York Times has more information at the moment. It is suggesting that the chairman of the company is personally involved and also charged. This looks bad for this gigantic company as a whole.

The chairman of the Samsung Group, Lee Kun-hee, has been indicted on charges of evading taxes on billions of dollars that he hid in stock accounts under the names of his aides, a special prosecutor announced on Thursday.

The weaker and less credible Microsoft’s partners become, the better it is for freedom of software. The abuse of the GPL must end and the GPLv3 is one possible solution to these deals.

While on the subject of GPLv3, some readers are likely to recall the AGPL-Google kerkuffle [1, 2, 3] because it led to a few discussions in this Web site. As it turns out, Google’s AGPLv3 snub is no accident and there’s more to it.

Chris [DiBona]:

Actually, we think that creating individual pools of software that cannot be shared amongst other licenses is less open, which is why we are against license proliferation.

SoC isn’t much about recruiting, but more about creating more open source code and developers.

mtg [Milking The Gnu]:

So the argument is that of compatibility? (e.g. creating less ‘pools’) but then by the same token you could have only the X/MIT license …

It raises another issue though: does it mean Google doesn’t really trust the OSI?

What if OSI starts delivering say an “Open Choice Repository” label to those repositories offering all OSI-approved licenses; does Google code want to end-up next to Microsoft CodePlex which denies hosting to GPLv3 projects?

Bear in mind that Chris DiBona used to be a very active participant in the OSI. We corresponded on several occasions. In this blog post (correspondence), DiBona says that he likes beer and wine. Well, it’s time to sober up.

The AGPLv3 is a reality and it’s extremely important to defend it. If Google disregards even the OSI’s approval (never mind the FSF’s principles), then Google will further complicate status issues amongst some developers. Time to face reality, Google. Your shareholders need the faith of the geeks. █

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

What Else is New

[Humour/Meme] The 'New' Edge (Chrome Copycat) is Already Dead, So Microsoft is Trying to Just Kill the Competition

Edge market share is so minuscule that it doesn’t even make it into this chart (it’s in “other”); no wonder Microsoft now bullies Windows users into using it, for users reject it even after months of endless advertising/AstroTurfing and aggressive exploitation/appropriation
Fourth of July in the United Kingdom and the United States

In these bizarre times Independence Day is still being celebrated, even as so many people are out of work, running out of hope and being fed xenophobia in social control media with a racist 'celebrity' president (the "user in chief")
[Humour] Bigger is Always Better When You're a Deluded Maximalist

The EPO totally lost sight of its mission; it's just speeding everything up, very carelessly, not minding quality and accuracy/certainty/legal validity
'Managing Intellectual Property' Managing to Become Uncritical Parrot of EPO Management

Managing to amplify the EPO's lies isn't hard; one just needs to copy, paste, edit a little; then they call it 'journalism', irrespective of the proven track record of EPO management lying to staff and to the media
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 03, 2020

IRC logs for Friday, July 03, 2020
Monopoly Abuse, Still: Microsoft Pays Projects to Embrace/Move to C#, GitHub and Visual Studio

Microsoft's greatest of efforts to lull regulators into inaction and fool us all into thinking that things have changed are undone by actual behaviour, which is abusive, anti-competitive and just... typical Microsoft
Links 4/7/2020: Grml 2020.06 and diffoscope 150 Released

Links for the day
[Humour/Meme] Don't Let a COVID Crisis Go to Waste When You're Eager to Find Excuses for Many Layoffs and Shutdowns

Microsoft business units that were defunct (long-failing, well before COVID-19) are being thrown out and Microsoft exploits a virus to rationalise these decisions while spicing up media coverage with "Hey Hi" (AI) and "virtual" experience or Facebook (to give the false impression that nothing really goes away)
Free Software Tackles Political Issues. Political Tactics Are Also Being Weaponised Against Free Software.

Divide-and-rule tactics seem to have been exploited to weaken collaborative work on Free/libre software; the response to these tactics needs to start with realisation that this is going on (even if it's done in a somewhat clandestine nature)
Offence and Racism

o those in positions of power and privilege (financial) you are controllable by guilt; dividing us and causing us to feel guilt and fear (over potential offence) is a powerful social control mechanism and pretext for dismissal, censorship, humiliation
Links 3/7/2020: TrueNAS 12 Beta 1, Librem 13 Product Line

Links for the day
[Humour] European Patents Only Useful Outside the Legal Framework?

Patents that aren't valid in the eyes of courts would best serve patent trolls that settle out of courts, en masse
Microsoft's Share in Web Servers Rapidly Falls to Just 4.5% (Falling More Than 5% in a Single Month)

Microsoft's share as measured at Netcraft (de facto authority in this area) is rapidly declining; expect IIS to go the way of the dodo some time in the coming years
The Lock-downs Are Over and Still Zero Media Coverage About EPO Scandals and Corruption

The appalling state of journalism in Europe (and to some extent in the world at large) means that the EPO's management can get away with all sorts of horrible crimes and fraud; the silencing of the media is, in its own right, quite scandalous
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 02, 2020

IRC logs for Thursday, July 02, 2020
“Microsoft's Deadly Love” by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Full credit goes to PCLOS Magazine for publishing this good piece, which we’re reproducing
Links 2/7/2020: Microsoft Partner Says GNU/Linux Share in Desktops/Laptops at 4% Even After Lock-downs, OpenSUSE Leap 15.2 and Mageia 8 Alpha 1 Released

Links for the day
Why People Should Never Ever Use DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is another privacy abuser in disguise; the above forum thread enumerates key reasons
After 2 Years and 2 Days António Campinos is a Perfect Leader, Fostering EPO Abuses While Smiling

EPO corruption persists, but this time the corruption enjoys better marketing/PR and complicit (or at best silent) media
[Humour] As If Monopolies for Life Will Save People's Lives...

The mentality of monopoly or the mindset of patent maximalism has been quick to exploit the deaths of half a million
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 01, 2020

IRC logs for Wednesday, July 01, 2020
IBM-Funded FSF Censors Itself on Software Patents

Donald Robertson’s article bemoaning and openly condemning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over software patents, which it illegally grants in some cases, was modified a week later; and why? One can only guess… (but remember that the FSF’s foremost sponsor is lobbying against 35 U.S.C. § 101 and for software patents)
[Humour/Meme] Remember That As Recently as Last Year Microsoft Was Still Shaking Down and Even Suing Companies Over 'Linux Patent Infringement'

There's no 'new Microsoft' except a (better at) lying Microsoft; its covert actions tell us a lot about its ongoing hatred of GNU/Linux, which it is assaulting in new and more sophisticated ways
Contrary to Common Misconceptions, Free Software is More 'Corporate' or More 'Enterprise-Grade' Than Proprietary Abandonware (All Proprietary Software Will Die)

Free software can leverage the superficial and bland boardroom lingo/slang to promote itself; it would definitely harm or dilute/weaken the terms which proprietary software giants like to leverage against us
Social Control Media Will Not Exist One Day

Digital obsolescence and Internet bitrot — that’s what Social Control Media is really good for; as many Google+ ‘users’ (useds) found out, they’re just being ‘farmed’ for their ‘content’, which is neither valuable nor resilient (definitely of no value to Google)
What Freedom of Software Actually Means to Us

Liberty or libre (freedom) is about more than brands or personalities, as names or institutions or individuals can change or completely perish; but concepts outlast superficialities
[Humour] Thinking Beyond Just the Linux Brand

We're supposed to believe that because "Linux" is dominant we finally have freedom; but almost all the very big companies that are using GNU/Linux leverage it for freedom-hostile purposes and keep about 99% of their code secret from us, so the fight for software freedom must go on
Corporate Media Blames 'China' and 'Open Source' for Back Doors in Microsoft's Intentionally Flawed Proprietary Software That's Causing Chaos

'Red Scare' tactics are being used to divert attention away from Microsoft's incompetence and conspiracy with the NSA (to put back doors in everything, essentially making all software inherently vulnerable, by design)
Microsoft Has Infiltrated Authorities and/or Their Consultation Processes

In the European Union, the United States and just about everywhere else in the world one can find Microsoft officials replacing public officials, as if the decision-making too has been outsourced to the "Good Folks" from Microsoft
Links 1/7/2020: Tails 4.8, Serpent OS

Links for the day