Comments

• Agent_Smith

  2010-04-30 21:09:33

  This madness must end. What is he talking about ??? Open Source must be patented to be legal ??? What the F...??? Here, in my country (Brazil) the government broke the patents of the aids medicines, so, the poor population could be treated against Aids. And now, this... Free and Open Source being chased anywhere, HTC's Android is not enough, those greedy sharks must come at everyone's door... Stop the patent madness, this American craziness has gone too far...

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2010-04-30 21:36:15

  Yes, patents are worst when they kill people. It puts software in a humble perceptive.

• Jose_X

  2010-05-01 02:30:18

  Let me get this straight, Microsoft can raise the cost of Linux, of those that use Linux to make money, but when IBM (we'll assume for a second) does the same to another company, IBM is super bad (enough to post without end for over a week)?
  
  Of course, IBM did not specify it was FOSS that was the problem. The company was pushing Microsoft technology (with some specially optimized "WinFOSS") as their solution and IBM stated that such a platform was not licensed.
  
  BTW, Florian apparently completely eliminated some threads on his site and has not added them back. In some of the conversations, he defended closed source, and avoided any blame at all on Microsoft after I pointed out the double standard he was using and all the problems he was ignoring about Microsoft's threat to FOSS.
  
  I would not be shocked to learn he anticipates rewards of some sort from Microsoft or from companies that don't want Microsoft be put in a bad light.
  
  He was dishonest and then resolved the issue apparently by deleting various threads.
  
  [PS, I think point 3 is basically right, and since Jobs said so little it's difficult to know exactly what is going on there.]

• Jose_X

  2010-05-01 03:23:54

  I haven't gone back to the comments I wrote, but I remember that he defended any type of software against patents. He felt proprietary was necessary and deserved as much protection as any other software.
  
  With this context, I supposed he would be upset at IBM not licensing MSware; however, he framed his entire attack on IBM as IBM attacking FOSS. He didn't even bring up Microsoft (I think it was groklaw where I first heard it). And he gave no real reply when I pointed out some of these things.
  
  He always comes back defending Microsoft. And here we see that now, rather than to criticize Microsoft for being worse than IBM, he exculpates them because Apple did much worse. Of course, he wasn't consistent wrt Microsoft and IBM across postings, but perhaps within the same posting he would have avoided mentioning IBM (but he didn't, go figure).
  
  BTW, if Microsoft "bought" this guy, Microsoft would be well aware that they would win if Florian was respected and they would win if Florian was shown to be hypocritical or otherwise showing bad judgment. In one case, IBM looks bad. In the other, Florian's good judgment over software patents is put in doubt.
  
  Oh well, maybe the guy was running short on dough. Fortunately, Florian is not the reason software patents are bad for society, individuals, competition, and most small to medium companies.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2010-05-01 06:13:33

  BTW, Florian apparently completely eliminated some threads on his site and has not added them back.

  
  
  Wow. is that so? Last night he sent me several mails criticising Groklaw for censorship in the comments.
  
  Can you say more about this? Maybe there's hypocrisy?
  
  [For the record, Techrights/BN never deleted any comments]

• Jose_X

  2010-05-01 18:35:02

  I'll just mention one thread [I verified other threads were also nuked and even came across someone else who had also complained]. On April 11, I posted to http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/04/ibm-confused-and-confusing-but.html and eventually had 11 comments total.
  
  In that thread he had various comments as well. His first comment was in reply to me and begun like this:
  
  >> Your reference to Groklaw
  
  >> In the beginning you refer to Groklaw, and whenever IBM's actions are concerned, Groklaw has over the years supported IBM. Groklaw's founder even admitted in an interview that the objective of starting Groklaw was to assist IBM's legal department. Therefore I strongly caution against trusting Groklaw on anything, especially anything IBM-related, without scrutiny.
  
  I don't like beating up on people whenever possible, but we have to keep in mind that lies hurt people (potentially a huge lot and a great many), and it seems we have an attack on behalf of Microsoft (that is the effect whether there is an understanding between Mueller and Microsoft/partner or not). All he has to do to get people like me "off his case" is to stop giving Microsoft a free pass because that ends up in deception and then significant harm. [Let me just say that people have even waged revolutions to fight back against various forms of nonphysical harm. People quit jobs to leave serious headaches and conflicts of principles and to avoid taking actions that could really hurt others. I say this to pre-empt talk about "harm". Fact is I think Gates would call some very violent dogs if I went over to his house with intent to remove billions of dollars to pay back people, so obviously "harm" is a fine word to use here.] Now, IBM and everyone also plays other people for their own gain. I find Microsoft particularly distasteful and don't like that specific company to be let off the hook until they have made amends for their crimes and stop the attacks. Making amends may not be possible since I doubt they are going to pass around the hat to major shareholders. And it is troubling to me when I perceive someone is trying to pass a greater harm for a lesser one. Deception is damn ugly. At least in art and history, deception has been used to bring down kingdoms and people.

• Jose_X

  2010-05-01 18:56:50

  I also want to mention that the last theme I hit upon before the comments disappeared was about how untrustworthy is closed source (proportional to its size, position, and backers), and the significant leverage position Microsoft has against the industry, against FOSS, against consumers, and against all third parties competitors (as could anyone else) by controlling such a large closed source platform(s).
  
  The turbohercules fight (it seems to me) is really between IBM and Microsoft over control of a particular platform. Closed source and open source are not "about the same" by any means.
  
  Mueller may very well have been honest about a number of things, but when it appears you refuse to acknowledge certain problems with Microsoft's control, ambitions, and past harm, I start looking at you as an extension of that plague and major threat to FOSS and to fair competition that is Microsoft.
  
  I can think of at least one other person that perhaps had very good reasons to have a real beef with IBM and also did not look upon Microsoft as a threat. It's difficult to know what people really think. In private conversation that person was interesting, polite, etc. Fortunately, we aren't judging people by what they think but by what they say and do within context. Muller, as far as I am concerned, continues with the deception. He writes up a piece that lets Microsoft off the hook again and then also links back to this attack on IBM. Not good, especially when you don't leave room for being wrong by allowing others to post their opinions and complaints.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2010-05-01 19:04:13

  I’ll just mention one thread [I verified other threads were also nuked and even came across someone else who had also complained]. On April 11, I posted to http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/04/ibm-confused-and-confusing-but.html and eventually had 11 comments total.

  
  
  It seems as though he suspended comments everywhere in his blog (I took a look this morning).
  
  I am skeptical about him because I know Microsoft's history of hiring/contracting people who are vocal Microsoft critics in order to shut them up, especially people in the legal field.
  
  I don't think he is connected to Microsoft, but yesterday he sent me ~7 E-mails defending his position and it wasn't sufficiently convincing.

• Jose_X

  2010-05-01 02:50:44

  Software, software controlled products, and products realized through software controlled processes affect the quality of life of a huge number of people in very strong ways. These products play a huge role in the health care industry for example. Is there any industry not tied up in "software"?
  
  If software and other patents were asserted more aggressively, we would see a lot more people dying much sooner and less developed countries might never get out of their hole (if they accepted the "infringement" rulings).