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Summary: As the title suggests, this is yet another roundup of patent news of interest
THERE IS a lot of news to go through today, so here is just a gist of developments in the patent world — in particular issues that affect Free software. The Inquirer was one among several sources that noticed Microsoft’s latest patent that harms people’s rights and freedom. It’s about DRM, which Microsoft almost pioneered and certainty welcomed.
SOFTWARE IMPERIALIST Microsoft has been awarded a patent for a distributed DRM system that works over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Patent number 7,594,275 is entitled, “Digital rights management system” and uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism.
Encryption is for security, not for prevention of access to one’s own files. But this is what Microsoft not only does here but also strives to have a monopoly on. To their defence comes the familiar anti-GNU/Linux brigadier whom we wrote about here. One person at Linux Today responded to him as follows: “No sorry its not “stealing” please cut the crap.”
Sharing cannot be “stealing” where only copying (duplication) is concerned. DRM can never really prevent “stealing”, unless it acts as a deactivation mechanism that reduces desire for theft, e.g. of a cellular phone. But encryption too has been patented, so Apple and eBay get sued. From Heise:
For some time, Vendor TQP (Telequip Corporation) has been filing lawsuits against various US banks over its patent for changing keys during encrypted data transmissions. Now the list of defendants also includes Apple and eBay. The claim is about the alleged violation of a patent which was applied for in 1992 and granted in 1995. It describes a method in which symmetric keys for a sender and a recipient are created using synchronised pseudo-random number generators and may be changed during transmission.
This is a very fundamental idea in cryptology. How can that be a patent? Patenting this only reduces security and acts as a barrier to those who are trying to make the world a safer place.
Microsoft has perhaps realised that deliberate infringement is acceptable [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] because patent laws do not apply to Microsoft. To Microsoft, annulling the ban on Word was not an interim verdict that’s sufficient; the company goes further and attempts to shoot down the entire monetary penalty.
Microsoft protests $290m Word judgment
[...]
A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday.
[...]
i4i has claimed that Microsoft deliberately set out to destroy its business while publicly proclaiming the two were allies. Microsoft’s inclusion of custom-XML editing in Word from 2003 usurped its own invention and relegated its patented technology from a mainstay in the mass market to a niche player in the pharmaceutical industry, it has said.
In other news, the USPTO is overflowing with patent applications which cannot be processed in a timely fashion and patent lawyers — rather than acknowledge that there is a fundamental issue with scope of patenting — believe that throwing more people at the problem is the way to go, apparently.
The IPKat thinks that making the system more efficient is all very good, but wonders how far this will go in reducing the backlog.
Over at TechDirt, a warning gets sounded regarding these attempts to popularise the changing of hands on patents, which only elevates patent trolls like Microsoft's Nathan Myhrvold.
The auction will be run by Pluritas, a patent broker based in San Francisco. Robert Aronoff, its managing director, says Zoltar has strong, court-tested patents that apply to a huge industry, at a time when there is an increasingly brisk market for intellectual property. “They are entering into this vastly changed marketplace with a hot property,” he said.
If such auctions become the norm, then patents become ownership of opportunistic lawyers rather than actual inventors with morals. Who is this system really for then?
Some days ago we wrote about Patent Troll Tracker, who has been fighting this rotten system and put at stake his career in the process [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. The good news is that the case is now settled.
None of the lawyers involved in the case would comment on the settlement Monday. Cisco issued a statement Tuesday morning in which it said the dispute between the parties “has been resolved to their mutual satisfaction, and Rick Frenkel and Cisco apologize for the statements of Rick Frenkel on the Troll Tracker blog regarding Eric M. Albritton.” Frenkel is now of counsel at the Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Sadly, as TechDirt puts it, even with Rick Frenkel set free, Patent Troll Tracker is unlikely to ever come back.
The real question is whether or not this means Frenkel will start blogging again. Some of his statements in the past (and having to go through this entire ridiculous process) suggest that he may not blog again. However, I’m hopeful that he’ll get back to it, though obviously not anonymously any more. His work in highlighting some of the more nefarious actions of patent system abusers is still sorely missed.
Will someone succeed Frenkel’s work? Let’s hope so. █
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Summary: Microsoft betrays Moonlight in the sense that suddenly it gives Intel access to Silver Lie, for Moblin
AS WE emphasised last night, Intel is not exactly a friend of Linux; it is forced to embrace Linux in order to guard its oversized hardware franchise. Moblin is still property of Intel, but Intel prefers for it to seem like a product on neutral grounds, notably the Linux Foundation.
Intel is now embracing Silver Lie, which is a betrayal of Web standards. Two Microsoft folks, Tim Anderson and Mary Jo Foley, have just written about this major development. They seem to have gotten some 'scoops'.
Update: Microsoft isn’t offering a whole lot of particulars about how Silverlight is being moved onto Moblin, other than reconfirming the effort uses neither Moonlight nor Mono. From a spokesperson:
“Microsoft plans to make a porting kit available to OEMs that will enable them to port Silverlight to their Moblin-based devices. Microsoft will provide Intel with Silverlight source code and test suites, and Intel will provide Microsoft with an optimized version of Silverlight for Moblin devices that Microsoft can then redistribute to OEMs. So when you get a device with Moblin, it will come with Silverlight.”
Anderson writes:
Intel and Microsoft have announced a new port of Silverlight to Linux, specifically for the Intel-sponsored Moblin operating system running on Atom-powered devices such as netbooks. The port enables Intel to include Silverlight as a supported runtime in the Atom Developer Program, which will feed an iPhone-like App Store.
Microsoft has already provided Intel with Silverlight source code and test suites. Intel will build an optimized Moblin version of Silverlight, which Microsoft will supply to OEMs.
There are a couple of surprising aspects to the announcement. One is that a Linux implementation of Silverlight already exists, the open source Moonlight project. We asked Microsoft’s Brian Goldfarb, director of the Developer Platform Group, why Moonlight was not being used for Atom devices. Goldfarb replied by making a distinction between “broad Linux,” which is targeted by Moonlight, and specific Linux-based devices where Microsoft might support other implementations.
Pamela Jones told me: “So that’s why Intel gave it to the Linux Foundation?”
We previously expressed concerns about the implications of Moblin when it comes to Linux and software patents [1, 2]. There is more to it than meets the eye.
Microsoft insisted that it didn’t bring Silver Lie to GNU/Linux (it lies about it being cross-platform) because of Novell, which was willing to make a poorer version that carries with it patent issues.
Regarding the latest development, Will asks: “Where does this put the “M&M” duo?”
“When that marketshare starts slipping, behavior like that is probably going to hit them hard.”
–WillAnother reader remarks as follows: “The more I use applications written in .NET, the more I think .NET is a typical Microsoft turd. Avoid at all costs. Silverlight and Mono are second order disasters, dependent on the first larger one. GNU/Linux should want nothing to do with any of it. The originals are bad news. Silverlight, thankfully, is gaining zero traction. I wonder why MJF [Mary Jo Foley] writes about it at all. Do you actually want a cell phone with Silverlight? I don’t.”
Will says that Silverlight is “beginning to gain an impressive list of operations that have dumped it. NBC, NY Times, for starters. I wonder what’s up with Silverlight and Moblin. [...] Silverlight? Just hearing “Windows Mobile” puts it instantly on my “avoid like the black plague” list.”
“Silverlight on Moblin should also send you running for the hills,” adds another person.
Will concludes: “Doesn’t this just confirm that Mono and Moonlight are useless? [...] Sometimes I think Microsoft just spent so much time and energy building walls to keep the competition out that they finally got to a point where they had completely walled themselves in and trapped themselves. They also have a nasty habit of dragging their feet years if not decades about supporting any new technology or format that they don’t control. They rely on their overwhelming marketshare and the network effect to make this work. When that marketshare starts slipping, behavior like that is probably going to hit them hard. You can already see it beginning in the browser area.” █
“We could refresh the look and feel of the entire desktop with Moonlight”
–Miguel de Icaza
IBM’s submission for the Linux Foundation’s video site
Summary: Can IBM be persuaded to push desktop GNU/Linux further? Some people think so.
TWO prominent bloggers, Sean Michael Kerner and Kenneth Starks, have just spoken out about IBM’s persistent promise of bringing GNU/Linux to the desktop. IBM makes a lot of noise about it almost every year, but very little materialises because the marketing push is scarce and almost inexistent.
Some would say that since IBM makes billions of dollars from Linux, then it has a certain debt/obligation to repay in terms of goodwill and advocacy. That’s debatable as IBM is already doing quite a lot.
IBM’s stance on software patents is unhelpful to GNU/Linux, but the company is not an enemy of GNU/Linux, not by a long shot. IBM is in the business of making money, not advancing GNU/Linux on the desktop, even though they have just launched such an initiative in Africa, along with Canonical. But as Sean Michael Kerner puts it, “Why not the U.S?”
Personally I think both IBM and Canonical are moving far too slow and aren’t thinking big enough. While I understand that it can take time to develop marketing and support services, the partners have had more than a year to put this together.
While I understand that Africa might be an easier entry point for the Linux notebook, the global recession is affecting every nation. The need for low cost, standards based solutions that IBM and Ubuntu are proposing for Africa is needed in every corner of the world.
One of the best known advocates of GNU/Linux was a little more direct and he specifically addressed a specific person at IBM:
Wake up man…Desktop Linux IS important and viable…you just can’t make any money from it. So a rag-tag bunch of people who care do the work, at least part of it, that you should be doing. In my opinion anyway.
Hey! I have an idea! Why don’t you guys take some of that profit (fully tax deductable of course) and help me get these 500 + computers connected to the Internet so those kids can compete and grow.
Oh never mind…I forgot who I was talking to for a second…
Silly me.
Ken’s position is rightly being defended and it is good to have people like Ken stand up and speak to those who see themselves as untouchable. According to Microsoft’s CEO, GNU/Linux is closer than Apple to dethroning Windows on the desktop.█
Steve Ballmer’s presentation slide
from 2009 shows GNU/Linux as bigger than Apple on the desktop
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Summary: ZDNet caught again with its pants down as it lets familiar foes of Free software publish an ‘article’ to advance business agenda
WHEN Jason Perlow defended Miguel de Icaza and attacked Richard Stallman, we gave him the benefit of the doubt. His post was not appreciated by Linux Today’s readership, though. The comments say it all. At ZDNet, where Microsoft employees are commenting anonymously at the request of the employer, comments are rather hostile towards Stallman, whereas in Linux Today the replies vary from blunt to more polite. Kurt, for example, wrote:
Autor is very inflammatory, as well as uniformed. Thinks that Miquel wrote GTK among other things. The article is so anti Stallman it is weird. Then the talkbacks start immediately in support of his position and begin to belittle and slam free software.
I smell a rat. Why bother to link to articles like this? They are of no value.
Here is a ruder response:
As people have been questioning about Jason Perlow a few days ago when he whined about not able to be exclusive with GNU/Linux, he seems more and more to be a newly recruited Microsoft “consultant” (read “shill”), attacking FOSS at every chance.
Rainer Weikusat had his own intereresting take not only on Perlow’s attitude but also about another piece of FUD from ZDNet. It received many people’s attention this week for being obvious FUD and Weikusat argued that it’s not FUD, just lies and marketing. Here is his message in full:
It is ZD-NET UK publishing blatant lies in order
to help the business goals of Nominum, Inc, a
company that is listed as official sponsor of
the development of bind9 at the ISC-page available
here:
.
https://www.isc.org/software/bind/history
.
That’s the ‘freeware DNS implementation’ this guy
is referring to and the very company he is working
for has (also) paid ISC to develop it.
It is not unusual for ZDNet to do this. The other day we mentioned FUD against Free software which came from ZDNet's sister site, silicon.com. This FUD later spread to the various ZDNet sites too, which revealed ZDNet’s real agenda or biases. People who care about news, as opposed to business agenda, should really know better. █
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Summary: Security news from the past couple of days can shed light on the severity of this zombie problem and its cause
WHILST Australia considers banning insecure Windows from the Internet in order to curb Windows botnets, the United States prepares for the worst having seen entire nations besieged by such botnets, even recently. David Gerard has passed a pointer to Wired Magazine, which outlines the Pentagon’s approach (physically bombing the botmaster/s is also a possibility which they consider because life is at stake).
The Pentagon already employs legions of elite hackers trained in cyberwarfare. But they mostly play defense, and that’s what Naval Postgraduate School professor John Arquilla wants to change. He’d like the US military’s coders to team up with network specialists abroad to form a global geek squad. Together, they could launch preemptive online strikes to head off real-world battles.
SJVN has this new article which helps highlight why GNU/Linux is inherently more secure (even the FBI cannot secure Windows, as opposed to back-dooring it). Oiaohm gave us the pointer. “Why items like Ubuntu win on security,” according to Oiaohm, is that they make it “simpler to update everything.” Another new article from SJVN speaks about viruses that are distributed via E-mail and it is worth adding that such E-mail (malicious SPAM) almost always originates from Windows botnets.
In particular, it seems like a day doesn’t go by that I get a Hallmark e-card in my e-mail, and every last one of them has been spam message bearing malware or an attempt to get me to link to a malicious Website. I’m not the only one.
Had people been in control of their PCs, then suppressing any flood of SPAM would be tremendously easier (and trillions of dollars would be saved too). █
Microsoft breaks its own rules by advancing Vista 8 before Vista 7 is even out
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
Summary: Will Microsoft no longer speak about Vista 7 as much as it does about vapourware?
MICROSOFT employs PR agencies to distort the reality behind Vista 7. This process includes some of the least ethical tactics, which include monitoring of blogs and then unleashing semi-automated replies to counter opposition en masse. Microsoft is not alone when it comes to these tactics though. Our reader Ryan gets this done constantly to his blog, which Comcast is still monitoring with the help of SpyStroturf agency Radian6. He saw this before. With agencies like Visible Technologies, Microsoft is systematically silencing opposition and engages in “perception management” [1, 2].
“Both Vista and Vista 7 did not deliver the features which Microsoft promised that they would have.”This introduction hopefully puts in perspective the hype that surrounded Windows Vista back in 2006 and 2007. It is happening again ahead of the release of Vista 7, whose deficiencies are very many (here is a list of examples).
Microsoft is probably aware that backlash may come after Vista 7 is released and then tested by average households where the computers are not state-of-the-art, the software is mediocre and old, and users are mostly amateurs (not testers of release candidates, let alone MSDN subscribers). As we have shown before, Vista 8 is already on Microsoft’s lips [1, 2], so when people express dissatisfaction with Vista 7 Microsoft will say that version 8 is out “real soon now” and it will deliver everything under the sun. Both Vista and Vista 7 did not deliver the features which Microsoft promised that they would have. It’s a safe bet that Vista 8 will also make coffee and do somersaults.
Anyway, here is the very latest attempt to hype up Vista 8. It comes from Mary Jo Foley, who makes some money on the side from doing that type of promotion.
Anders Vindberg, a Microsoft Technical Fellow in Microsoft’s Management and Services division — a “Big Brains” interview with whom I’ll be posting soon — acknowledged that planning sessions were well underway for Windows 8. And of the 12 working groups created, “eight or nine revolve around management.”
[...]
Stephen Chapman, a tech enthusiast who runs the UX Evangelist site, has been beating the bushes for a few months now for Windows 8 information. He recently unearthed a number of job profiles of folks who have worked on and are working on various elements which may or may not make it into the final Windows 8 release.
Here they are talking about “final Windows 8 release.” Isn’t the world supposedly preparing for the final release of Vista 7? Well, as the quote at the very top shows, Microsoft perhaps realised just how far behind it had fallen. It’s not just about GNU/Linux, but also about Mac OS X. █
“The fact is that the vast majority of office desktops are using Windows, the third-best platform. You can argue about the relative merits of modern Linuxes like Ubuntu and the Mac, but they are clearly better than Windows in terms of robustness, cost, performance, and a whole bunch of other things. For the long term, can the mainstream of business continue to ignore the fact that there’s a better alternative than what they’re running? If that logjam breaks, that’s going to be a real change.”
Hewlett-Packard is making an effort to support non-commercial Linux distributions on its servers and other vendors’ business hardware. But you wouldn’t know it from the black hole of fanfare regarding its new collaborative portal, communitylinux.org.
Djl is an open-source (GPL licensed) game manager written in Python 2.5 for the GNU/Linux Operating Systems, inspired by Valve’s Steam software for Windows for which anyone can submit games, via THIS page.
Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.28, the
latest version of the popular, multi-platform free desktop environment and of its developer platform. Released on schedule, to the day, GNOME 2.28 builds on top of a long series of successful six months releases to offer the best experience to users and developers.
Welcome to the final part of my Arch Linux Experiment series. For those that missed the earlier entries, I was trying to find out if Arch Linux would be a viable replacement for Kubuntu. When I last left off, I had pretty much everything I needed straightened out and I was able to take care of all of my needs within my Arch Linux set up, and was ready to write about my final thoughts.
While the base platform Linux, still remains the dominant contributor of revenue, the company has moved beyond its Linux roots. Rather than being seen as a player only in the Linux OS space, the company is now positioning itself as an infrastructure player. In the emerging world of clouds, this has huge implications.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Red Hat to post second-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share, and $179.1 million in revenue.
Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat continues to buck the economic meltdown, reporting sales up 11.7 per cent to $183.6m in the second quarter of its fiscal 2010 and net income up 36.9 per cent to $28.9m. The sales were above the high end of Red Hat’s guidance.
Red Hat’s fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 37% as the company again posted slightly better-than-expected results on growing revenue and higher margins. Shares were up 3.1% to $25.66 in after-hours trading.
Red Hat’s shares rose 3.3 percent in after-hours trading to $25.70 after closing at $24.88 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)
Next month will see the release of Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala, the latest version of the popular Linux operating system from Mark Shuttleworth’s team. Going, as it will, head-to-head with Windows 7, which is also expected to be released in October, Ubuntu is going to have to make a good impression if it doesn’t want to get blown away by Microsoft’s latest operating system.
Palm’s attempt to get the USB Implementors Forum on Apple’s case for blocking the Pre from syncing with iTunes has backfired. Perhaps Palm will finally give up and resolve the issue by creating its own software.
I really, really want to see what Google has planned for us with its Chrome operating system. Intel and the Linux Foundation aren’t waiting around to see what they’ll do. Today, September 23rd, they and their partners, such as Dell and Canonical, gave us a peek at Moblin 2.1.
I am glad to see a mainstream business resource like the Business Standard publishing a reasoned analysis and properly recognizing just how much waste there is in India’s current procurement practices. The bad news is that the numbers are likely much, much larger. The good news is that that waste can be eliminated, and India could be much, much richer the sooner it makes a more decisive shift from proprietary dependency to open source independence.
Noah Broadwater, vice president of information services at Sesame Workshop, is also keen on using open source. But as a technologist at the nonprofit group best known for its children’s TV show, “Sesame Street,” he approached open source from a very different perspective than that of larger enterprises.
“Treacherous Computing” that stealthily takes away rights from users, so says “The Free Software Foundation” who has launched a campaign against Microsoft Windows 7. At their Boston based Web site; Windows7Sins.org, has listed seven sins that software, such as this, commits against computer users:
Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as Open Document Format, leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management, and invading privacy.” MS has not responded to a request for comment.
It was a nice, crisp fall day outside, but we had a great group of people gathered inside at Encuentro 5 in Chinatown for Boston’s Software Freedom Day. There were talks on hacking your blog, women in free software, free software on mobile devices, and how free software economics works.
Who pulled off this publicity stunt? Credit Richard Berman, one of Washington’s most notorious PR operatives, whose exploits Mother Jones and others have been chronicling for years. Nicknamed Dr. Evil—a moniker he embraces—he’s the force behind several industry-backed nonprofits that share staff and office space with his very for-profit communications and advertising firm, Berman and Company. The firm promises clients it will not “just change the debate” but “start” one, and a range of companies, from Anheuser-Busch to Philip Morris to the casino chain Harrah’s, have signed up for Berman’s “aggressive” and “hard-hitting” advocacy. Some clients pay Berman and Co. directly, while others donate to his nonprofits—but much of the cash winds up in the same place, via hefty management fees the front groups pay to Berman’s company.
Today, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department took its first steps toward cracking down on misinformation disseminated by Medicare providers.
During the recent health care reform hullabaloo, “Keep Government Out of Medicare” became a rallying call for some and a joke for others. As it became clear that tens of thousands of senior citizens across the country held irrational beliefs about the government’s role in their health care, we asked, where is all the misinformation coming from? The answer: Medicare Advantage providers have been deliberately misinforming Medicare recipients about health insurance reform.
Darbee wrote, “We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored.
The New York Post, long noted for promoting the views of climate change skeptics, responded to the fake 32-page edition with a media release headlined ‘”witless spoof in flawless format.”
AS US REGULATORS consider new legislation to protect net neutrality, European citizens are set to have their internet freedoms significantly curbed.
The debate on net neutrality revolves around whether telcoms firms should be allowed to intentionally speed up or slow down traffic based on which service or application is being used.
Senate Republicans react quickly to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to expand the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality authority. Working on an unrelated appropriations bill, Republican senators push an amendment to deny the FCC funds for developing or implementing new Internet regulations.
It is time to act again to protect Net Neutrality in Europe, as reported by the open letter signed by 26 European internet civil society organizations.
People who misrepresent themselves as officials in online comments could face civil, criminal penalties, Acevedo says.
In other words, Netflix is about to put the behavioral data about viewing choices for millions of Americans into the public domain, despite its legal duty to keep this information private.
Demon Internet sent thousands of business and government subscribers an email this morning telling them all about a new e-billing system, and tacked on details, including passwords, for 3,600 customers.
Last week, the FCC held what was ostensibly a panel discussion about the National Broadband Plan, but which was actually focused on copyright issues. How, exactly, is copyright an issue for broadband? Well, mainly because the entertainment industry has been trying for years to get ISPs to act as copyright cops… and apparently the FCC felt the need to hear them out.
The suit maintains that the copying and insertion of a copyrighted work into a filtering system without compensating the copyright holder, or obtaining their consent, is a violation of the Copyright Act. The case comes as copyright filtering technology is quickly becoming a behind-the-scenes feature on university sites, user-generated content sites and online social networking venues.
The French Parliament has adopted HADOPI 2, a law aimed at establishing a so-called “three-strikes” policy in order to fight file-sharing. The Constitutional Council made groundbreaking decision on June 10th 2009 that recognized access to the Internet as essential to the full exercise of free speech, and invalidated the sanctioning power of HADOPI 1. The law HADOPI 2, despite the internet cutoff now being handled in an expedient form of judicial justice, it is as flawed and dangerous as its predecessor, for it was only designed to circumvent the Constitutional Council’s decision. The war on sharing continues its way as HADOPI 2 will go through the constitutional test again. ***
Jim Hogg teaches GNU Linux to high school kids 12 (2008)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
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