Summary: Novell’s passing of patents to Microsoft et al. is likely to be the only barrier to Novell’s sale

A COUPLE of new posts, composed by Fabian Scherschel and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (SJVN), say a little more about Novell’s claim of getting stockholders’ approval. We wrote about this three days ago, emphasising that several barriers remain (although lawsuits can be resolved by settlement with compensation rather than total withdrawal from the deal). SJVN’s analysis of this is exceptionally comprehensive and relies a great deal on Groklaw:

Novell, which as Pamela Jones of Groklaw points out now describes itself as “the leader in intelligent workload management,” instead of the producers of “best engineered, most interoperable Linux platform.,” still faces anti-trust inquires from both the German Federal Cartel Office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Neither of these agencies are concerned about Attachmate a formerly obscure software company buying Novell with Microsoft financing. No, the governments; concerns are about Novell’s patents landing in the hands of CPTN Holdings-a company made up of Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle.

For Attachmate to end up with Novell, the patent deal must go through. If Microsoft and friends don’t end up with the patents because of government intervention then the Attachmate deal is dead. Or, as Novell explains it: “The patent sale to CPTN remains subject to the satisfaction or waiver of closing conditions, including receipt of antitrust approval in the United States and Germany. As previously disclosed, Novell and CPTN received a request for additional information from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice regarding the patent sale. The requests have the effect of extending the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 until 30 days after both parties have substantially complied with the requests, unless the waiting period is earlier terminated. Novell is in the process of gathering information to respond to this request and is continuing to cooperate fully with the Department of Justice in connection with its review. Novell continues to work toward completing the merger as quickly as possible and currently anticipates that the closing of the merger will occur following the completion of the waiting period and the satisfaction of other closing conditions.”

Microsoft MVP and Novell VP Miguel de Icaza is meanwhile expressing DRM tolerance:

I do not mind DRM that much. It sucks when it gets in the way, but all software gets in the way anyways. I like the benefits of it.

Sure he does. Would he not love it if Microsoft took even more control of Novell? It would make him stronger, richer, and more influential. Miguel works for Miguel (and Steve), not for Free software. █

“DRM is the future.”

–Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

Summary: AttachMSFT [sic] does not have enough money to complete an acquisition of Novell, so it is reaching out for a loan

IN THE coming days we shall cover the AttachMSFT acquisition of Novell and the barriers which remain, including the important fall of the CPTN deal and the many lawsuits from investors. One of the lesser-discussed barriers is actually financial and according to this report from Bloomberg:

Attachmate Corp., the connectivity solutions provider owned by private-equity firms, is seeking $1.09 billion in loans to finance its acquisition of Novell Inc.

Attachmate is seeking an $825 million first-lien term loan, a $40 million first-lien revolving line of credit and a $225 million second-lien facility, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Novell said today in a regulatory filing.

This was echoed by [1, 2, 3] and for some more recently-written background:

6. Novell, the Waltham open-source software developer that once called Utah home, finally found a mate in Attachmate last month, following an eight-month strategic review. The Seattle firm shelled out $2.2 billion for Novell.

There is a lot more to be said about this planned takeover, but that is a subject for future posts. We still have a backlog of about 20 posts. █

Summary: The real face of CPTN, the entity which got Novell’s software patents; more revelations about how Novell’s deal came about

WE HAVE written over 20 posts about the subject since Novell was sold (despite impending litigation) and it was never known to the full extent just what Novell did and where assets were being passed. First there was turmoil over the assumption that Microsoft may have acquired UNIX from Novell. Shortly after Novell was publicly flogged for it the CMO of the company came out with an important statement denying this claim (AttachMSFT [sic] might still sell UNIX though). It was still assumed at the time that CPTN was merely a Microsoft shell [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] as no company other than Microsoft was named as a member. Well, none until now anyway. A group of Microsoft proponents [1, 2] says that Apple, Oracle and EMC are also part of CPTN (not principal ones though) and Groklaw theorises that it’s ill-intended and dangerous to Linux. From its new post on the subject:

So what’s the common interest? “Let’s all kill Android”? There’s a limit on that, in that Google is also an Open Invention Network member, so it has a license to these Novell patents already. Of course there could be more than one theme, virtualization, office suites.

Don’t forget that if you sign up with Open Invention Network before this deal closes, you will have a license in perpetuity to all those patents, and more, and these Machiavellian dudes won’t be able to mess with you. Here’s the article that provides information on where to sign up and who qualifies and what is required.

By the way, Oracle is a member of OIN, so it knows how it works. If it wanted to prevent patent litigation, all it had to do was buy all the patents. So I will assume they plan to use these patents, claiming they belong to the consortium and are therefore not donated to the OIN pool. Alternatively, looking at matters more positively, perhaps it wished to exercise some control over what Microsoft does with the patents.

Groklaw also thinks it’s an anti-Android plot despite the fact that VMware recently released software for Android and all we know about Oracle-Apple is not a sufficiently strong link [1, 2, 3, 4]. Moreover, Oracle has too much to lose if it harms Linux (Solaris notwithstanding). Groklaw is very familiar with the SCOracle [sic] case, which it has been tracking quite closely so far, so Groklaw’s opinion is nothing to sneeze at. From the latest status report at Groklaw:

The Oracle v. Google Java litigation now begins in earnest, with each side offering a proposed protective order, along with a handy table of the disputed provisions. Say, I think Groklaw has a claim for prior art on that kind of table.

Could some rival of Android have motivated Oracle to sue? It’s not possible to tell with any conviction at this moment. The same goes for the Traul Allen case from Interval — a case that was dismissed [1, 2] but Groklaw declared the end of it before it was over for good. By the way, the MSBBC’s coverage of this dismissal was atrocious, as expected. It even glamourised Traul Allen for this pathological, irrational, antisocial behaviour.

In addition to the news about CPTN, there is also news from the VAR Guy, who sheds lights on what exactly was going on behind the scenes when Novell looked for buyers:

Overall, Novell representatives contacted 52 potential buyers. Roughly nine official bidders emerged. So how did Attachmate wind up buying the bulk of Novell’s assets? And what happened to rumored SUSE Linux bids from VMware? In a preliminary proxy statement dated December 14, Novell offers an extensive time line describing how the company’s board of directors, executive team, and external financial advisors pursued potential buyers for the company. The filing is more than 100 pages. Here are some of the highlights, paraphrased by The VAR Guy. Please note:

* The vast majority of the info below is based on information within Novell’s SEC filing.
* Novell protects the names of several bidders, referring to them as Party A through Party E. In some cases, The VAR Guy makes some educated guesses about the actual identity of each company. But The VAR Guy’s educated guesses could be wrong.

Regarding anti-Android lawsuits, Mac Asay [sic] wrote this new article where he claims the lawsuit are evidence of Linux and open source success (it is embedded in almost everything).

Google came up with two on its own – Android and Chrome OS – to cover its bases on encouraging geeks to contribute to Google’s total world domination. And while Chrome OS never quite got out the gate in 2010, despite assurances that it would ship in late fall, Android more than made up for Chrome OS’ delays, with Google’s Andy Rubin tweeting: “There are over 300,000 Android phones activated each day.”

That’s a heck of a lot of phones running open source. Even more than Apple ships.

Apple, of course, didn’t let this open-source momentum go unnoticed, and launched a lawsuit against Google’s Android through its licensee, HTC. Not to be outdone, Microsoft and Oracle also sent lawyers to the Googleplex. About the only company that didn’t is Research in Motion. Nice Canadians.

Not only Linux is a target of such mobile phone lawsuits. There are more new lawsuits right now and they come from Symbian giant Nokia to apply pressure on Apple:

Nokia has just released a press release announcing that it has filed claims in the UK, Germany and Holland, alleging that Apple has infringed on Nokia products sold in those respective countries in regards to technologies used it the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

In response, writes Rupert Goodwins (UK-based journalist): “I find this profoundly depressing. Does history mean nothing in the face of short-term reactive capitalism?

The patent lawyers are watching this carefully (still afraid of losing software patents) and TechDirt jokes that creating flight plans on the Internet is now patented. Hilarious! Sane judges can view this as further evidence of BM/SW patents needing abolition.

Thanks to Kiran Lightpaw for alerting us to yet another example of patents being used to stifle innovation, rather than enable it. It involves a company called FlightPrep, that secured a patent (7,640,098) a year ago, covering generating a flight plan online and filing it online. Basically, it’s one of your typical “just add online and patent it!” patents that never should have been granted. In fact, the patent, which was first applied for in 2001 was rejected repeatedly, and many adjustments had to be made before the patent examiner finally gave them the patent.

Once they got the patent, they apparently started hitting up all sorts of online flightplan services for licenses — even ones that appear to have been online predating some of the claims in their patent. Nelson Minar, who knows more than a little bit about software development, does a nice job highlighting that there appears to be a fair bit of prior art to the claims that were actually approved.

Free software would have won far more easily if there were no software patents, which cannot be justified on economic grounds anyway. Everyone needs to demand elimination of software patents to hasten development and research efforts. Patents help society as much as Wall Street does. █

–Steve Ballmer, 2001

Summary: Samsung signs a patent deal with the world’s biggest patent troll, Intellectual Ventures (which serves Microsoft’s agenda)

Earlier today we wrote about HTC feeding the vultures of Intellectual Ventures, which is somewhat of a Microsoft spinoff and also the world’s biggest patent troll. It’s rather mysterious and we suspect that HTC did not join voluntarily, so maybe it happened after threat of litigation, even by proxy (Intellectual Ventures always sues through one of its 1,000+ satellites). Both Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures use attack dogs to distance themselves from the negative publicity associated with lawsuits. Why did Microsoft and Gates want Intellectual Ventures created in the first place? The founder too came from Microsoft. Perhaps Microsoft can use such a proxy to repeatedly extort companies and elevate the price of its competition, which is gratis under conditions where software patents are not valid.

According to this new report, Samsung decides to “Partner Up With Intellectual Ventures”:

In a move to help steer clear of any more legal trouble, HTC and Samsung have entered into a partnership with Intellectual Ventures to use over 30,000 software patents in their phones, and in Samsung’s case, a myriad of other devices. This is especially handy for HTC who’s faced nothing but legal trouble since they spearheaded the Android movement back in 2008.

HTC sold out to Microsoft some months ago and then signed an Intellectual Ventures deal; Samsung too follows this path, having surrendered to Microsoft without even a fight (in 2007), deciding to pay Microsoft for Linux. Samsung could possibly join the OIN instead of joining the Microsoft racket, but Microsoft and Samsung have resemblances and a long history together (as partners). As shown in the very recent conversation below (full log to be published later), our contributor gnufreex has some ideas about the purpose of OIN and CPTN, which we will write about tomorrow. █

Summary: Software patents proponents share their wealth while companies that bring free/libre software to the market get sued

PATENT TROLL Acacia has been agitating Linux for almost exactly three years now and a few days ago it made a settlement announcement regarding Red Hat [1, 2, 3]. Microsoft paid Acacia some months ago and it’s paying it again based on Murdoch’s press and Mary Jo Foley who writes:

Sometimes it’s cheaper to head off a potential problem than fight — a stance the old Microsoft regime would repudiate, but one that the current one increasingly has been pursuing.

On October 7, Microsoft licensed 74 patents for an undisclosed amount with Acacia Research Corp. and Access Co. Ltd, the Japanese company that acquired PalmSource, the maker of the Palm operating system, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Notice the role of ACCESS in there. André Rebentisch from the FFII warned us last year about the patent pools ACCESS or LiMo were getting into. The company was pro-software patents and patent trolls are now using similar tactics to merely extort competitors. It’s a good thing that ALP is dead given the damage its staff was causing to software freedom. “Microsoft pays Acacia,” I pointed out to Glyn Moody, adding that “Groklaw perceives that as Microsoft rewarding those ex-Softies who work in Acacia and sue Red Hat et al.” Moody did not rule out the possibility of it being a factor.

“Acacia has been good to Microsoft as it helped generate Linux FUD for several years, just like SCO did.”Isn’t it fascinating how money can change hands through settlements? Microsoft did not even challenge this, it immediately paid. Acacia has been good to Microsoft as it helped generate Linux FUD for several years, just like SCO did.

In other news, now that Microsoft extorts Android, LG (with a Microsoft patent deal covering Linux) drops some of its Android plans and just a couple of days later initiates a Microsoft co-operation. A reader of ours from Latvia sent us this link. It turns out that some of those companies which signed Linux patent deals with Microsoft were actually quietly sued but settled before this was made publicly known. Melco is reportedly one of those. That’s just racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and it’s where Microsoft seems to be going. █

Summary: New evidence of the patent trouble which is Centrify

EARLIER this month we wrote about Centrify [1, 2, 3] getting sued for patent violation. Some days ago Centrify strengthened its relationship with Microsoft, too.

“Patent Agreement” called it the press release [1, 2] and Centrify’s many problems are a subject we covered before. In short, as we argued back in January, Centrify is strengthening Microsoft’s patent FUD against GNU/Linux. █

Summary: The 451 Group provides insight into Novell’s situation

NOVELL INC. is still up for sale. According to the 451 Group (regarding a sale):

While the process initially attracted a number of parties, we understand that there are only three left at the table: a private equity-backed company, a UK-based PE firm and a joint bid between a publicly traded tech company and a buyout shop. It’s not clear that any of the three will actually close a deal for Novell. (The process has already run past two deadlines, we gather.) Without a deal, shares of Novell would be left to trade on the company’s own merits, which probably wouldn’t do much for shareholder value.

That seems like a significant short report. What is this mysterious “publicly traded tech company”? Maybe Microsoft? There are many more new articles which mention Novell's inability to keep up with expectations (this is still the main news about Novell), e.g.:

i. Software Stocks Losers (MSFT, ORCL, ATVI, NOVL)

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) is trading 3.01% lower to $5.64. Novell, Inc. develops, sells and installs enterprise software that is positioned in the operating systems and infrastructure software layers of the information technology (IT) industry. The Company operates in four segments: Open Platform Solutions, Identity and Security Management, Systems and Resource Management, and Workgroup.

ii. Trading Update for Novell Inc. (NOVL)

Shares of Novell Inc. slipped $0.23 (-3.95%) to $5.59. The stock closed at $5.82 in the last trading session and today the shares of NOVL opened at $5.73.

iii. AgFeed Industries, Fossil, Novell, Netflix: U.S. Equity Preview

Novell Inc. (NOVL US) slumped 2.7 percent to $5.85. The maker of Linux operating-system software lowered its third- quarter sales forecast to a range of $197 million to $199 million. Analysts were expecting $206.5 million on average in a Bloomberg survey.

iv. “Wall Street regains some ground after Fed remarks

In earnings news, MBIA surged 4.5% after it registered a 45% jump in earnings in the second quarter. Software manufacturer Novell plunged 3.2% after it cut its third- quarter revenue outlook.

Amid negotiations about sale of Novell, sales will continue to disappoint. The official report from Novell is just a couple of weeks away. █

Summary: Microsoft manages to get away with abuse of taxpayers’ money in Switzerland, thanks to an apparent lingual loophole

LAST YEAR WE wrote a lot of posts about Microsoft’s illegal deals in Europe, including the suspicion that it is doing it this year in France and in Italy. Illegality here has to do with the lack of tender and the consideration of just one monopolistic company, to which taxpayers’ money will get funnelled in order to further increase lock-in. One interesting case took place in Switzerland, where the matter was taken into court (just like in Quebec, where Microsoft lost last month [1, 2, 3]). Previous posts about the situation in Switzerland are:

1. Microsoft Sued Over Its Corruption in Switzerland, Microsoft Debt Revisited
2. Can the United Kingdom and Hungary Still be Sued for Excluding Free Software?
3. 3 New Counts of Antitrust Violation by Microsoft?
4. Is Microsoft Breaking the Law in Switzerland Too?
5. Microsoft Uses Lobbyists to Attack Holland’s Migration to Free Software and Sort of Bribes South African Teachers Who Use Windows
6. ZDNet/eWeek Ruins Peter Judge’s Good Article by Attacking Red Hat When Microsoft Does the Crime
7. Week of Microsoft Government Affairs: a Look Back, a Look Ahead
8. Lawsuit Against Microsoft/Switzerland Succeeds So Far, More Countries/Companies Should Follow Suit
9. Latest Reports on Microsoft Bulk Deals Being Blocked in Switzerland, New Zealand
10. Swiss Government and Federal Computer Weekly: Why the Hostility Towards Free Software?
11. Switzerland and the UK Under Fire for Perpetual Microsoft Engagements
12. Lawsuit Over Alleged Microsoft Corruption in Switzerland Escalates to Federal Court

According to Jan from Red Hat, Switzerland is still “0wn3d by Microsoft”:

The court has decided. A tender would be disruptive to the Microsoft-only world of the swiss public. One of five judges disagrees and mentions that this effectively means there is no alternative to Microsoft and that this might not be what a free market is about.

I can only say “Congratulations” to Microsoft. Feel free to cash in the 47 million SFR of swiss taxpayers money and look forward to a perpetuum mobile. You now own the swiss public sector. This is what competition and free market is about?

The trick used here was to say that the BBL wanted to buy a defined “technology”. The “technology” however was the Microsoft range of products. By using this interpretation it was obvious that Open Source solutions cannot compete and therefore a tender was not needed.

This argumentation disrespects a fundamental fact IMHO – this “technology” is not available in a market – it is *only* available from a *single* vendor who sets the price, the features and the scope. With this fundamentally flawed argument Microsoft now effectively is even free to ask *any* price for its “technology”. A single-vendor market is typically not seen as a free market. But I guess in Switzerland they have a different definition in place. Is this a wise use of taxpayers money? I respectfully disagree.

Notice the trick that they use. Microsoft still uses its cult-like ecosystem to pretend that Microsoft is default “technology”; calling Microsoft technology is like calling or referring to Coca-Cola just as “beverage”. Red Hat et al. will hopefully appeal this decision if they can. This is similar to the case in Quebec — a case that Microsoft lost.

As Pogson put it yesterday:

The only thing preventing total collapse at the moment is the loyalty of the “partners” who are solidly locked in.

Microsoft partners too are a threat to Free software. That is why we mention companies like Novell too, for their contribution to Microsoft with Mono and Moonlight for example. Microsoft partners are part of the problem and Swiss partners of Microsoft were also playing a role in this country's crooked vote on OOXML. █

Summary: Move Networks is reportedly shutting down, self-destructing and selling whatever is left

The last time we mentioned Drew Major was one month ago. Major founded a company called Move Networks, which has just gone out of business and currently looks for a buyer of its assets.

A report today says that Move Networks, the video streaming firm founded by Novell founder Drew Major, has shut down, according to a report from The Diffusion Group.

In related news, a Novell Ventures partner is renaming itself.

The venture firm, whose partners includes managing directors from Utah Ventures/UV Partners and Novell Ventures, said “now was the time to change the name” to reflect the direction of the firm.

Novell Ventures is a 12-year-old captive venture capital vehicle of Novell. █

Summary: “It should be widely known by now. No matter why, when and where, join MS and you will be dead.” –Abe

Richard Hillesley has just published “The lost world of the Xandros desktop,” which is an article that looks at Xandros’ past and present. To quote some bits from this long article:

The latest release of the Xandros Linux desktop edition was in June 2006, which is several lifetimes in the history of Linux. Is this the end of the line for the Xandros desktop?

[...]

The ‘patent covenant’ with Microsoft has had a detrimental effect on Xandros’ ongoing relationships with the Linux user and developer communities. Ostensibly the purpose of the deal with Microsoft was to license protocols to enable Xandros’ BridgeWays and Scalix products to work with Microsoft networks.

Actually, Scalix came later. Xandros bought Scalix in July 2007 (July 9^th to be precise), whereas Xandros sold out to Microsoft on June 4^th.

We have found some new comments on the subject, including one in Tux Machines:

Xandros propaganda for smartphones ? giving up on netbooks ?

Netbooks were born for children. But had a future for enterprise applications because of HDTV(broadcasting news or training film) 16:9 video format(DVD player format). So, Asus sold more XP(sp3). But for individuals, dual boot with Ubuntu maybe a choice, until Firefox shot itself in the foot(not flash9 compatible).

In the comment titled “Join MS”, Abe from Linux Today writes:

Those who forget history are bound to repeat it.

It should be widely known by now. No matter why, when and where, join MS and you will be dead.

Those who ignore the warnings can’t blame but themselves.

We have a detailed list of companies that lost their GNU/Linux focus after signing Microsoft deals. Xandros of one of those companies. It’s "Microsoft's touch of death". █

“I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense — I deserve it.”

–Be’s CEO Jean-Louis Gassée

Summary: The IBM-led Linux Foundation allows Microsoft to make money from Linux by accepting another member which engages in this questionable practice

BASED on the news [1, 2, 3], LG Electronics has joined the Linux Foundation. This foundation typically accepts anyone regardless of policy on software patents and even an intricate relationship with the company that litigates against Linux. Here is the official announcement:

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that LG Electronics is its newest member. LG will participate in the Linux Foundation’s events and community development efforts.

A lot of people may no longer remember LG’s treasonous pact with Microsoft. LG is paying Microsoft for Linux (we call it “Ballnux” when that happens) and it is rather discouraging to see many announcements this month about Ballnux devices from LG [1, 2, 3]. Microsoft is making money from both Windows and Android now, thanks to LG. Here is another new phone that’s coming.

Details are starting to emerge (translated) about a forthcoming Android-based smart phone from South Korean handset maker LG. From the sounds of it, the LU2300 will fit well with some of the newer “super” phones like the Nexus One and Motorola Droid.

How does Google feel about being taxed by Microsoft (at a manufacturing level) for its operating system? See the Apple vs HTC case, recalling that Microsoft used it to justify extortion against large vendors for Free software that they use. This is what Microsoft does with LG and Samsung, which is also based in Korea. Samsung must be paying Microsoft for Linux boot-up on its new sub-notebooks.

It looks ordinary enough and has largely average performance, though the extra battery life is welcome and the alternative Linux boot-up is fun.

Samsung also has some new Android phones [1, 2, 3], which are being ‘taxed’ by Microsoft behind people’s backs.

If AT&T keeps in line with their recent Android strategy, the Galaxy S could be hampered by lock-downs and restrictions.

Yes, it hardly even feels like Free software. But where is the mainstream media, which is simply not covering the fact that Microsoft makes money from Android by extorting companies like LG, Samsung, and Kyocera? This is a major issue. █

–Stewart Alsop, Fortune

WALTHAM, Mass., April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) today announced that Microsoft had agreed to acquire Ximian, along with its owner which possesses UNIX, one of Microsoft’s most formidable competitors.

Microsoft and Novell choose to keep the details of their deal secret but are delighted to assure customers that it is absolutely good news to them all.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers a Microsoft-taxed Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated software patents designed to help customers around the world increase cost, complexity and risk.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in racketeering, extortion services and collusions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. █

“It’s possible, you can never know, that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s going quite well I must admit.”

–Bill Gates

Summary: Richard Williams from Cross Research believes that Microsoft or even its ally SAP might attempt to buy Novell for approximately $2 billion

LAST NIGHT we wrote about Novell's possibly inevitable fate as a private company, taken over by another. We have not prepared any detailed posts on the subject yet, but here is some food for thought:

Elliot offers to buy Novell Inc. for $2bn; Novell stock surge

[...]

“The deal price is on the low side compared to recent deals that were transacted in the enterprise software space,” said Cross Research analyst Richard Williams.

[...]

William said there could be more companies who would offer a similar bid for Novell as Elliot’s. HP, SAP, and Microsoft are expected to be the possible suitors.

Microsoft, already having a strong business partnership with Novell, sells Novell’s version of Linux to its customers.

This whole episode may explain why a lot of executives quit the company recently. At this stage, it seems unlikely that Novell will stay NOVL this year. █

“Now [Novell is] little better than a branch of Microsoft”

–LinuxToday Managing Editor

Summary: Panasonic signs an exFAT patent deal with Microsoft, Amazon continues to abuse, and Nathan Myhrvold’s abuse of the system is still being discussed

ACCORDING to this promotional and self-congratulatory press release (in addition to Microsoft boosters [1, 2]), Microsoft does with Panasonic what it did with Funai earlier this year [1, 2, 3, 4].

Microsoft has made a second intellectual property (IP) licensing announcement this week. After announcing a cross-licensing deal with Amazon.com (which had lots of NDA stipulations), Microsoft revealed on February 25 it had struck a deal with Panasonic for its exFAT technology.

[...]

Maybe Amazon was just licensing exFAT/FAT, some argued. Sure, maybe Amazon licensed those technologies too; it’s impossible to tell, given what Microsoft disclosed and Amazon refused (or was not allowed) to discuss. But as I mentioned to some readers, when Microsoft is simply licensing exFAT/FAT, it calls that out specifically in the release, even if the licensee isn’t talking about how/what they plan to do with the technology.

In Amazon’s case, Microsoft called out the fact Amazon is using open-source technology (Linux, specifically) in the Kindle and on its back-end servers. Some open-source backers said they believed Microsoft did this to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to hurt Linux.

Regarding Amazon’s patent deal with Microsoft [1, 2, 3], there is another new development justifying boycott of Amazon, which is one of the notable abusers of the USPTO (and patent offices in other countries too, Canada for example). Amazon is clearly part of the problem.

How Hard Is It To Realize That One-Click Buying Doesn’t Deserve A Patent?

[...]

Amazon and Jeff Bezos (who a decade ago was a founder of a project to bust bogus patents) have aggressively fought to keep the patent alive. And so we’ve now entered the fifth year of the review process, which seems to involve some rather annoyed USPTO patent examiners, who are fed up with what appears to be Amazon simply dumping busywork on the examiners to avoid a final rejection of the patent.

In light of Microsoft’s latest intimidation against GNU/Linux (waving of the Amazon deal), one person writes the following, referring to the i4i case [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12].

You can imagine my laughter when Microsoft was declared by the courts to have violated a patent in their OOXML file formats. The patent owners, i4i of Canada, asked the courts to have Microsoft remove the features that were found to be in violation of i4i’s patents.

Now, what about all the customers that chose to use Microsoft’s Office product just to get the OOXML feature? If they suffer loss because of this Microsoft compensate them? What about the documents they created with OOXML, will they have to be converted? What about the people that refuse to let Microsoft remove the patent violating code to protect their investments and documents? Could i4i sue them?

Then there is Microsoft's patent troll Nathan Myhrvold, whose extortion racket we explained and shed light on earlier this week [1, 2]. Other people — including patent lawyers — have something to say (well, usually complain) about this patent troll and TechDirt cites a lawyer as follows:

Sawyer also points out that, contrary to claims of the system’s supporters, that “having a patent doesn’t mean that you really invented anything, or that the person you’re suing would actually infringe in a rational world.” Some of you may have seen some of the regular commenters here claim that there the only way to prove you’ve invented something is if you get a patent on it — and that anyone accused of infringing has clearly “stolen” the idea. Neither of those things are true. What Sawyer is pointing out is that getting a patent is just a sign that you were able to convince the USPTO (through a “pseudo-adversarial administrative procedure”) that you deserved such a monopoly privilege. It doesn’t mean you actually invented anything — and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve done anything to promote the progress or innovation in general.

Summarising the above, the president of the FFII adds that “patent trolls are financed by traditional investment banks and hedge funds,” but even some VCs have no faith in software patents, based on another post from TechDirt (published a day beforehand):

VC Explains How Damaging Software Patents Can Be

Despite claims that no VCs would ever invest in companies without patents, we’ve been seeing more and more VCs moving over to the side of recognizing that patents are more often hindering their portfolio companies rather than helping them — and these are some of the most respected VCs around these days. Brad Burnham, who has already called for an independent invention defense for patents has responded to Nathan Myhrvold’s ongoing campaign to legitimize patent shakedowns.

It is worth emphasising that this whole debate started because of Microsoft’s patent troll who was running amok with an extortion racket. This shows just how much of a problem Microsoft has become to scientists and developers. It retards more than just the field of software right now and so does Bill Gates. █

“Software patents have been nothing but trouble for innovation. We the software engineers know this, yet we actually have full-blown posters in our break-room showcasing the individual engineers who came up with something we were able to push through the USPTO. Individually, we pretty much all consider the software-patent showcase poster to be a colossal joke.” —Kelledin, PLI: State Street Overruled… PERIOD

Summary: An excellent new audiocast covers lesser known facts about Novell’s deal with Microsoft

JEREMY Allison, whom we interviewed shortly after he had left Novell in protest, has just done a session with the SFLC where he talks about events predating the Microsoft deal. According to the audio (playable below), Allison was sent an early copy of Novell’s deal with Microsoft, which he said was like passing a crayon over section 7 of the GPL (v2). Allison resisted it, but the lawyers ignored his feedback anyway and requested deletion of the trail.

Here is the original page, which includes in its index:

* Jeremy discussed that he resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft/Novell deal. (19:33)

The main new item there is Novell’s treatment of antagonism. The legal team patronised an expert advice, so what was it sharing a draft for? A pursuit for endorsement and “yes men”? Based on the bogus survey, that is a possibility. █

Summary: Microsoft signs more deals that help exclude rivals, starting with Dubai and moving further east to Taiwan

LAST week we saw Microsoft making moves to control Dubai’s ICT — moves that we now see continuing. They got themselves a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over there and this week it’s Taiwan which signs an MoU with Microsoft, despite accusing Microsoft of antitrust violations last year. MoU-type deals are explained in this presentation from Microsoft and we also gave recent examples in:

• Will Microsoft Sign an MOU with Indonesia?
• Urgent Need for Transparency in Procurement, Standards-Setting Process
• Does Microsoft Use Extortion to Sign MOUs?
• Microsoft Dealt Another Big Blow in Europe (UK), Pawns Exposed Further
• The Ukraine’s GNU/Linux Ambitions and Microsoft’s MOU Response

Here is the latest, via the Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft, Taiwan Sign MOU On Cloud Computing Research Hub

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and the Taiwan government signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to jointly set up a research center for cloud computing in Taiwan, the U.S.-based software giant said in a statement.

Why is the government involved in this? Watch the role of ministries:

Microsoft Corp. and the Taiwanese economics ministry said they are in talks of setting up a cloud computing research centre in Taiwan by next year.

It’s a government partnership:

As for its partnership with Taiwan’s government, Microsoft and Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs will jointly invest to establish a Software and Service Excellence Center in Taipei, with focus on R&D of applications of cloud computing technologies. This reveals Microsoft’s intention of establishing a hardware supporting system to realize cloud computing applications.

What makes no sense here is that they are using taxpayers’ money for this. Another fine example of “constructive capitalism” printing cash for Microsoft at the expense of those who will later pay some more, to the very same company whose operations and establishment they fund too?

What Microsoft is doing with Chinese banks at the moment is also worth paying attention to. Steve Ballmer has just signed a deal in Beijing. We wrote quite a lot about Microsoft in banking recently, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. █

–Bill Gates

Summary: Microsoft spreads lies about the role of counterfeiting and thereby attempts to capture Nigerian ICT; A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Abu Dhabi blocks Microsoft competitors from ICT

Microsoft has taken its crocodile tears campaign up another notch. It’s all about lies and spin. At the beginning of this month we wrote about what Microsoft was doing Nigeria and now we find the “rich uncles from Redmond” summoning the ‘piracy’ propaganda yet again. It’s all about ICT, which Microsoft wants to absolutely dominate in Nigeria under the guise of “defense” (from so-called ‘pirates’, a phantom enemy).

Microsoft, one of the world’s largest software providers has launched a new operating system (Windows 7), saying Nigeria is one of the major countries of the world where the level of piracy is a threat to the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Meanwhile we learn that Microsoft has just captured ICT in the United Arab Emirates. Further east in Abu Dhabi we find the following new reports:

i. Abu Dhabi’s ICT arm inks deal with Microsoft

The Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre, the ICT arm of the Abu Dhabi government, has signed a master business and services agreement agreement with Microsoft Gulf to enable the emirate’s local government affiliates to purchase Microsoft licenses and engage Microsoft Consultancy Services.

ii. Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre signs master business and services agreement and MoU with Microsoft Gulf

The MBSA agreement together with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft Gulf were signed by H.E. Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori, Director General, ADSIC and Charbel Fakhoury, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf and witnessed by Linda Zecher, Global Vice President, for Microsoft’s Public Sector business.

This marks a continuation of policies which Bill Gates secured in its trip to Dubai, leading to yet another MoU — a contractual scam that we wrote about and sometimes properly explained in:

• Will Microsoft Sign an MOU with Indonesia?
• Urgent Need for Transparency in Procurement, Standards-Setting Process
• Does Microsoft Use Extortion to Sign MOUs?
• Microsoft Dealt Another Big Blow in Europe (UK), Pawns Exposed Further
• The Ukraine’s GNU/Linux Ambitions and Microsoft’s MOU Response

Here is a leaked presentation from Microsoft. It explains how an MoU works and what its purpose really is. █

–Bill Gates, Microsoft

Summary: Novell employees to become Xerox staff (outsourcing revisited)

XEROX has announced that it is buying ACS, which works closely with Novell in the sense that Novell employees are moved there.

Novell claimed that the exact number would be "156 Novell professionals" when it signed the agreement with ACS, but the following report from Utah claims that less than 100 “employees” are affected.

The deal comes just five months after ACS and Novell Inc.’s Provo office formed a strategic alliance in which ACS took over computer operations. Nearly 100 Novell employees went to work for ACS.

The following article provides some more background information about Novell and ACS.

Office equipment supplier Xerox Corporation is to buy Dallas based data center management and business process outsourcing firm Affiliated Computer Services in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.4 billion.

[...]

In June this year Affiliated Computer Services said it would take over the running of Novell’s data center operations in Provo, Utah as part of a global services deal which will see the outsourcer take Novell’s data center products to market. Under the IT outsourcing arrangement, around 150 Novell data center staff will move to ACS, including the infrastructure and application development and maintenance services operations. ACS will also take over Novell’s global SAP roll out by providing consulting and applications development and system integration services in a $135 million, five-year contract.

The above article speaks of “around 150 Novell data center staff.” We have already explained the role of Novell offshoring in its cost-cutting moves. █

Summary: Moblin is a step forward for GNU/Linux, but software patents do not appear to be off the table

YESTERDAY we wrote about Moblin eschewing Silverlight, noting that it was (sometimes still is) based on SUSE [1, 2]. There is a complex history to it, which continues to present day.

As we explained two days ago, Intel is not a friend of GNU/Linux, but it must keep up with the competition, so Linux is not a platform that Intel can afford to ignore. Intel and Novell are quite close, as this very recent video of Guy Lunardi shows. Likewise, Intel is close to Microsoft, whose operating system it is constantly promoting these days; there is even collusion with Microsoft [1, 2, 3].

As we repeatedly showed, Dell had mysteriously joined the Microsoft/Novell deal very shortly before Microsoft’s patent attack began [1, 2]. Now we find this in The Inquirer:

Dell and Microsoft back Moblin

[...]

During her keynote at the show, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Software and Services Group Renee James was joined by Ian Ellison-Taylor, Microsoft’s general manager for Client Platforms and Tools to announce the collaboration.

This partnership is expected to help developers write applications once and have them run across Windows and Moblin devices, expanding the reach of Silverlight from the desktop and into mobile consumer electronic devices.

“We see this as a clear extension of our current efforts with Novell where we are building an open source implementation of Silverlight called Moonlight that is targeted at the broad range of Linux–based PCs,” said Ellison-Taylor.

Heise has some more details and Turbolinux, which also joined Microsoft’s Linux racket, is mentioned in various places. This does not necessarily suggest that there is consistency here when it comes to “Linux tax” in Moblin.

Throughout its lifetime, Moblin swapped desktop environments and distributions several times. After the Ubuntu shuffle came OpenSUSE, but also Fedora was put at the centre about a year ago, before Moblin was passed over to the Linux Foundation. According to this, Fedora is still at the centre, which is somewhat baffling and the information may be out of date.

Atom-based devices can run Windows but also Moblin, an open source custom Fedora-based Linux operating system targeted at netbooks, handhelds, smart phones and car computers. Intel started the Moblin project in 2007 then passed it over to the Linux Foundation.

Then there is this press release, which suggests that Ubuntu is somehow magically back under the name “Ubuntu Moblin Remix”. Are there now variants of Moblin, too?

Sam Dean argues about the effect of Moblin on ‘fragmentation’, further adding or at least showing that Moblin targets device types that are almost dominated by ARM.

If Moblin becomes a serious player in open source mobile operating systems, it will contribute to a great deal of fragmentation. Android is just gaining its stride, and heading beyond just smartphones, while Google is likely to put big marketing dollars behind Chrome OS. It’s already announced that it is talking to hardware partners.

At IDF today, the first edition of Moblin Linux for smartphones were demonstrated. They could lead to Intel chip-based smartphones.

There is more information about the smartphones outreach of Moblin, which confirms that to Intel it is mostly about expanding to more hardware, not necessarily replacing Windows. Intel also intends to offer software shops and there is nothing wrong with that. The most interesting report speaks about Moblin coming to full-blown desktops.

Intel has expanded the scope of Linux-based Moblin by porting the OS from netbooks to mobile devices and desktops, where it could compete with Microsoft’s Windows OS.

In its latest filing, Microsoft told its investors that it worried about Hewlett-Packard and Intel turning to Windows alternatives, namely GNU/Linux in this case. It sure looks like it is happening. So to characterise Intel’s work on Moblin as beneficial to Microsoft would be absurd. But that’s not the point; the question is, will Intel bend GNU/Linux in the direction of becoming Microsoft-taxed, just like SUSE? This is hopefully preventable as that would spell a defeat to the freedom of Free software in the mass market. █

–Bill Gates, Microsoft

Summary: Another new lesson on the dangers of mimicking Windows functionality

EARLIER in the day we wrote about people who try to turn GNU/Linux into some kind of a clone of Windows. They do so despite lack of interest from both users and developers. To make matters worse, Microsoft’s “promise” for Moonlight and Mono was deemed insufficient. Lessons ought to have been learned from Microsoft's attack on free implementations of FAT and Microsoft is now doing the same thing to NTFS, which some hardware manufacturers tactlessly embed by default.

The significant news comes through this press release from Tuxera. For those who do not know, “Tuxera was the first to implement reliable NTFS read/write support on Linux, Mac OS X, and other systems.”

Oddly enough, Tuxera is not bashful about lending its voice to Microsoft’s patent attacks and the Microsoft crowd seems ecstatic.

On August 26, Tuxera Ltd anounced it has signed an intellectual-property (IP) licensing agreement with Microsoft; joined Microsoft’s exFAT driver-licensing program; and joined the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance. Tuxera, based in Helsinki, Finland, was founded by the NTFS-3G open-source project.

According to The H (Heise):

Tuxera has announced an “extensive co-operation” with Microsoft. Tuxera, the company formed by the NTFS-3G developers, has signed an Intellectual Property Agreement with Microsoft and joined its exFAT Programme.

[...]

Tuxera’s CTO, Szabolcs Szakacsits said he looked forward to working with OEM customers saying “Adding exFAT into our existing NTFS product portfolio is the logical next step”. The exFAT driver is aimed at OEM manufacturers and will be available for Linux first, but no details of any open source plans for exFAT were disclosed.

Tuxera seems to be a very small proprietary software company, based on its Web site. NTFS-3G was considered open source however and the agreement around it is secret.

Tuxera, the Finnish company behind open-source file system NTFS-3G, has announced a confidential intellectual-property deal with Microsoft, under which it will be permitted to carry on distributing its open-source NTFS product and to offer new exFAT drivers.

Tuxera is based in Finland, where software patents are invalid. What were they thinking?

Could Microsoft have rewarded Tuxera in some way in order to rattle the NTFS case? We shall soon find out, hopefully. The secrecy around this deal may be part of the FUD factor that’s desirable to Microsoft. █