New means of derailing Linux

Summary: Quick mentions of abrasive developments in the mobile arena

THE notorious patent fight carries on in an attempt to make Android more expensive than free (gratis).

Groklaw covers some of the latest of Larry Ellison's contribution to this attack. Oracle wants royalties:

Judge Alsup asked for an assessment of his proposed alternative approach to the determination of patent damages, and he has gotten an earful.

On December 27 Judge Alsup set forth a questionable alternative approach to the determination of patent damages in the case, particularly in light of the prior Sun/Google negotiations in 2006. (See 657 [PDF; Text]) We immediately questioned the approach the judge was suggesting and suggested that it would not be received well by Google.

As explained in the latest episode of TechBytes, Ellison seems to be serving Steve Jobs' interests here. One thing that Apple and Microsoft have in common is that they want to crush Android. Moreover, "Microsoft uses Nokia money to advertise Winphone and bribe the salesforce," says our guest editor. Pogson calls it a bribe and adds:

M$’s scheme to mess with competition in 2012? If sellers persuade consumers in their best judgment that Android/Linux smartphones are the best choice, M$ will bribe them $10-$15 a copy to persuade consumers that smartphones running “phoney 7" are the best choice. M$ plans to spend hundreds of millions for these bribes in 2012. I don’t know what legal fiction this scheme will cloak itself in but if you run a retail business would you want a third party bribing your employees? I suspect M$ will have to sign up retail businesses to subscribe to this mode of compensating salespeople. M$ agreed not to do exclusive dealing but now the creative department at M$ is trying “persuasive dealing” instead, anything to mess with competition.

In the coming days we are going to write a lot more about what made Android such a big target. With 700,000 or so activations per day, it seems unstoppable, unless the economic rules can somehow be changed. ⬆