THERE are many news articles listed here, but none are important in the sense that they really change much. For those who insist on reading on, we only warn that it might be dull.
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ALMOST NOTHING was said about SLE* in the news, but there were exceptions. For instance, this report from Latin America suggests that SLE* is used there.
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THERE was no particularly important event, but OpenSUSE was tested against other GNU/Linux distributions over at Phoronix and the biggest new event probably ought to be Hackweek, which produces some more valuable software.
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Summary: More rumours about Microsoft layoffs following abysmal results
MARY Jo Foley has a speculative post about more Microsoft layoffs (large drops in revenue and profit may require it). Therein she quotes Microsoft’s CFO, but there are missing bits of text. She then asks herself, “So does all that mumbo-jumbo translate to no more layoffs? Probably — at least for the rest of this calendar year. But not definitively….”
Mary Jo Foley believes that Chris Liddell said, “I don’t see any potential for us to lower our expenses for the rest of this year,” but other bits of text could occupy the missing part. It is left for people’s imagination to decide whether Microsoft will suffer the pain it inflicted upon others over the years, using violations. █
“We should whack them [Dell over GNU/Linux dealings], we should make sure they understand our value.”
–Paul Flessner, Microsoft
Summary: More ‘stolen’ ideas get patented by Microsoft while the USPTO shows its weaknesses
EVERY once in a while it is worth reminding everyone that numeric counts of patents mean too little if the quality of the patents is low and thus they are simple to invalidate.
Microsoft was never known for innovation, no matter how much it repeated the word “innovation”. Since its early days, Microsoft’s modus operandi was to “copy the product that others innovate, put them into Windows so they can’t be unplugged, and then give it away for free,” to quote Oracle’s chief, Larry Ellison.
Microsoft is known to have copied Lotus (see antitrust exhibits which shows that they systematically do this with other products too) and then patented this copying of features. That too is just so typical when it comes to Microsoft. Here is Microsoft patenting the “emotiflag”, which is not Microsoft’s invention at all. From the news:
Microsoft wins ‘emotiflag’ patent, despite Lotus Notes precedent
[...]
A few years ago, Microsoft made headlines for seeking a patent on the email “emotiflag” — an emoticon, chosen by the sender, that appears along with the subject line in the recipient’s inbox. The application was controversial because the idea was actually introduced years earlier as “Mood Stamps” in Ray Ozzie’s Lotus Notes.
As Scientes puts it, “USPTO fails to do a simple web search for prior art, gives Microsoft invalid patent.”
Network World (IDG) asks, “Why would Microsoft patent a ‘butt hinge with butt straps’?”
You can look for yourself in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database: Patent No. 5,819,372; inventor: Robert D. Magoon, Duluth, Ga.; assignee: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.
I asked Microsoft’s public relations department at the time but they were unable to assist.
Then life moved on.
Microsoft has been actively engaged in brainwashing (indoctrinating) children so that they become fans of patents.
“Microsoft has been actively engaged in brainwashing (indoctrinating) children so that they become fans of patents.”One of our readers brought to our attention a Web site called “Invent Now”
“It’s like a “patent Kool-Aid kit” for children,” explains the reader, adding that it “seems to be sponsored by the UPSTO.”
To quote from the parental section: “Teachers, inspire your students through problem-solving exercises, exploration, creativity and the inventive process. At the same time engage them in learning about the intellectual property protections of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.”
“I think the whole purpose of this site is to push patents now that they’re being questioned,” opines our reader.
There are many other interesting posts and articles about patents this week. Here is a sample of some that are more relevant:
• No Patents for Circuits? Since You Insist…
I love this argument:
Arguments against software patents have a fundamental flaw. As any electrical engineer knows, solutions to problems implemented in software can also be realized in hardware, i.e., electronic circuits. The main reason for choosing a software solution is the ease in implementing changes, the main reason for choosing a hardware solution is speed of processing. Therefore, a time critical solution is more likely to be implemented in hardware. While a solution that requires the ability to add features easily will be implemented in software. As a result, to be intellectually consistent those people against software patents also have to be against patents for electronic circuits.
[...]
Since software is just algorithms, which is just maths, which cannot be patented, and this clever chap points out that circuits are just software made out of hardware, it follows that we shouldn’t allow patents for circuits (but they can still be protected by copyright, just as software can.)
• The Fact That A Credit Card Is Patented Is A Selling Point?
In the (snail) mail this week I happened to get an ad for the Visa Black Card, which Visa is pitching as “exclusive,” though I’m guessing that exclusivity is mostly based on finding enough suckers to pay a $500 annual fee for the card.
• D Ravi Kanth: A Trips-plus agenda at WIPO
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ is a timely reminder for key actors who are bent on pushing failed agendas. As governments and multilateral institutions struggle to recover from a pervasive crisis of confidence stemming from the current political and economic climate, it is important to not make the same mistakes all over again. But the tendency is to cock a snook at such warnings.
[...]
Internally, the abrupt removal of Ram Kishan Singh, a junior official, who worked for nine years in the organisation with an outstanding record and the proposed reforms in the staffing pattern raise serious questions whether developing country officials are specific targets in the onward march of a renewed western IP agenda at WIPO!
• In China And India, Stronger Intellectual Property Is Unnecessary
Stronger intellectual property may also be unnecessary in another way. Although they are promoted as a tool for enhancing economic competitiveness, readers of Techdirt will know that their effectiveness is, at most, questionable. In the 1980s, there was a boom in American patenting activity, seemingly corresponding with changes to intellectual property laws that were made in response to worries about diminishing national competitiveness (Dahlman 2001). A measure of useful innovation, Total Factor Productivity, should have increased accordingly with the rise in useful, novel and non-obvious inventions, but this has not been the case (Boldrin 2008), providing compelling evidence that, contrary to common usage, patent activity is not equitable with economic benefits.
• Costly Drugs Known as Biologics Prompt Exclusivity Debate
For starters, whatever the exclusivity period, biologic drugs would also continue to be protected from copycats by patents. And in many cases, the patent protection would last longer than the exclusivity period, making the Congressionally mandated exclusivity a moot point.
Genentech’s Avastin, for instance, has patent protection until 2019 — 15 years after the drug’s 2004 approval by the F.D.A. The company’s breast cancer drug, Herceptin, has patents that extend 21 years from its 1998 approval.
• Another bad day for IP auctions as first ICAP sale hits record low
I have just heard the results of the first ICAP Ocean Tomo IP auction, held this afternoon in Chicago. According to the reports I have had, a total of just over $1.5 million was raised, excluding buyer and seller premiums. This is lower than any amount raised at any Ocean Tomo auction and is comfortably less than the approximately $2.75 million generated in San Francisco in March – which itself was seen as pretty disastrous.
• Has Google Forgotten Celera?”
One of the reasons I wrote my book Digital Code of Life was that the battle between the public Human Genome Project and the privately-funded Celera mirrored so closely the battle between free software and Microsoft – with the difference that it was our genome that was at stake, not just a bunch of bits.
Patent unrest is very high these days, and not just in the field of software. █
Summary: Microsoft’s loadable module had to be GPL licensed, but Microsoft asserts that it was compliant from the get-go
THE news about Microsoft’s Linux module simply won’t stop. We wrote about this in:
The claim that Microsoft complied after GPL violations is now being refuted by Vyatta’s management. Microsoft agrees.
Reports that Microsoft had to release the Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC) under the GPLv2 because they had violated the GPL have been rebutted by Microsoft and Vyatta. Vyatta had been referenced by reports as the source of the accusation.
This debunks some more reports such as this one, but it remains true that Novell was a notable collaborator. From Silicon.com:
What made Microsoft open up to Linux? Ask Novell
[...]
Microsoft’s move to offer several Linux drivers owes a lot to a key programmer at Novell.
More here:
Microsoft’s chief ally in the Linux realm, Novell, helped the software giant work with the Linux kernel community.
Vincent Danen asks, “What’s in it for them?” [for Microsoft]
As rudely as always, Microsoft defends its racketeering practices. SoftPedia does them a favour by printing what seems like a propaganda piece against Red Hat. This also includes a partial list of companies that participate in the Linux racket.
Novell stands out from the crowd of Linux vendors that have inked IP assurance agreements with Microsoft, but there are others, including Xandros, TurboLinux, Samsung, LG Electronics, Fuji-Xerox, Brother, TomTom and Kyocera Mita.
IDG approaches some routinely-Microsoft-hired analysts who pretend that Microsoft has changed. Even IDC, which is affiliated with IDG, gets quoted. It is the usual PR routine. Just the other day, the same writer, John Fontana, neglected to put TomTom in the timeline of Microsoft’s attitude towards Linux and instead gave the impression that things were improving. Selectivity can achieve a lot when it comes to reviewed history. Many nations selectively remember their better moments from the past and don’t teach the embarrassments at schools. █
“That’s extortion and we should call it what it is. To say, as Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet liability, that’s just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that game. On the other side, if Microsoft is concerned about its intellectual property, there is no one in the free software community that wants to violate anyone’s IP. Disclose the patents and we’ll fix the code. Alternatively, move on.”
–Mark Shuttleworth
Summary: NASSCOM turns its back on digital autonomy and gives Microsoft a platform for nationwide lock-in
ONE of our readers, wallclimber, told us yesterday about a PR ‘fluff’ piece praising Bill Gates. It was published in the Indian press. These usually appear when Gates comes over for self-serving business trips, which he conveniently disguises as philanthropic escapades. Some years ago we saw him doing this in India (ruining a migration to GNU/Linux) and some months ago he did this in Spain.
According to the Economic Times (thanks to a pointer from another reader), Gates and NASSCOM had a little meeting of the minds where Chile-like Microsoft colonialism was envisioned.
Terming the unique identity project as a “great initiative”, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates Friday said the software giant wanted to partner with India in the ambitious project that will give a unique identity number to each of its citizens.
“Microsoft wants to be a part of the unique identification project,” Gates told a conference organised by the IT industry lobby, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).
Look at them bragging about it in public.
For information on the uglier side of NASSCOM, see its role in OOXML [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and learn what it did to enable Microsoft to pay charities for political pressure [1, 2, 3]. It is all quite dodgy, to say the least.
If one turns attention to the blog of a Red Hat employee in India, the picture becomes a lot clearer. NASSCOM has become a true obstacle to Free software and open standards.
Now here is the interesting bit. The industry associations asked for more time so that they could go back to their members and ask for their opinions. And here, I am trying to break down the doors of NASSCOM to submit Red Hat’s opinion and what do I get? Dead silence. I hear that their deadline was June 7th and then extended to June 15th and I don’t know if there is a new cut-off date. But I do know that despite writing to NASSCOM, I haven’t heard back from them.
Whose interests does NASSCOM serve? It is also mentioned in the following recent posts from the same blog:
In his famous long complaint about Microsoft, Professor Deepak Phatak wrote about NASSCOM and BusinessWeek now names him one among 50 people who are most powerful in India. It ought to serve as a sign.█
“What Microsoft is doing is patently illegal. Think about it. If you want to build computers, you’ve got to ask Bill’s permission. If Bill wanted to triple the price on Windows, what would you do? You’d pay, you wouldn’t have any choice.”
–Oracle Corp Chairman Larry Ellison
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Summary: As Microsoft’s profits fall by about a third (again) we look at the role GNU/Linux plays
MAKING the same old tired arguments about the impact of GNU/Linux would be unnecessary, but in a nutshell, GNU/Linux turns operating systems into a commodity in devices, servers, desktops, supercomputers, and so on. This is a direct hit on Microsoft’s bread and butter, which get devalued. Yesterday we wrote about the figures reported by Microsoft as they came in and David Gerard did so with a wonderful satire where there are elements of truth, such as:
The world’s largest software maker said it had been affected by weakness in the global personal computer and server markets, particularly by having to sell Windows XP for $5 to keep netbooks from going entirely Linux.
According to real reports, none of Microsoft’s divisions saw a rise. Red Hat apparently takes the blame in this report from The Street (subscription required) and the following suggests that the impact of GNU/Linux should come first.
Microsoft profit is down 17%, and cited is long term threats that are materializing on it’s doorstep, Ubuntu Linux and Apple and the newly announced Google OS
Ubuntu Linux has been making serious inroads in the netbook market as a desktop of choice for many lower powered machines called netbooks, The Google OS is vaporware for now… but the threat exists.
More along the same lines:
Crashing PC sales send Microsoft profits tumbling
[...]
But there are other challenges abroad which the firm has dealt with rather less effectively – the effects of competition and the changing nature of the IT business to name but two. Its Windows operating system may still reign supreme numerically, but for how much longer? It faces two serious challenges, firstly from the various homemade flavours of Linux-based OS’s out there, and secondly from arch-rival Google, which is developing its own PC operating system to go head-to-head with Windows.
Linux is free to use already, and the Google system is likely to be so, too. So the $64m question is, how much longer will MS be able to go on selling very expensive OS’s and equally expensive applications when its key rivals will offer 80% of the functionality, and cost next to nothing?
Richard Waters, whose coverage tends to be strongly in favour of Microsoft, confessed that:
It is six years since Steve Ballmer issued a wake-up call to Microsoft’s developers, warning of the threat posed by the Linux operating system and other open source projects.
Now it comes to haunt them where it hurts the most: the bottom line. Market share and profitability are totally separate things, albeit not independent. It is all about margins.
According to one of our readers, Microsoft is what killed Sun. “No one survives a partnership with Microsoft,” he wrote. “We’ll see if Oracle can clean house now. █
Also see: Microsoft Q1 2009: The Things Microsoft Does Not Tell About Its Continued Decline
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