05.02.09
Posted in America, Europe, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, Patents, TomTom at 8:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Europe’s software patents cartel is rearmed
Summary: Another look at the TomTom/FAT case, GE’s new role in Europe, and growing opposition to software patents
ACCORDING TO this report, General Electric has joined a group of American lobbyists who are trying to impose American software patents upon Europe. Red Hat is the exception [PDF].
Microsoft has teamed with General Electric to petition European regulators on a fundamental principle that will continue to drive a wedge between the company and open source supporters.
The duo filed an amicus brief arguing that regulators should believe in the existence of patents in software and that these patents should then be enforceable in European Union courts.
This article comes from a Linux-hostile person and it actually stirs things up using FAT patents. Over in Europe, TomTom paid less than €500,000 to Microsoft. The laws in Holland are worth learning in order to understand the cause, but basically, what Microsoft wanted from the TomTom case is PR. And indeed, the company issued a press release to celebrate this settlement at the time, so right now it must be going from door to door waiving it and demanding money for the Linux kernel. That’s why OIN has responded and Linux developers are already working around the patents.
“…Microsoft wanted to keep this number under the radar (out of the public eye) and that’s why they asked for less than €500,000.”In reality, given the nature and scale of the case, €500,000 is a very meager amount, so Microsoft will not want it to be publicly known. We have it confirmed that Microsoft wanted to keep this number under the radar (out of the public eye) and that’s why they asked for less than €500,000. It has something to do with Dutch law (tax in particular). Can any of our Dutch readers look into this?
To say more about Europe, patent filings are falling there as well (just like in the United States). It’s a reason to be delighted because patents merely restrict research and development. They promote immovable monopolies that are nothing to be jubilant about unless you work for Philips or Siemens or SAP. They too are lobbyists for more patents simply because they are in a position where they can elbow competition out of their way.
Preliminary figures from the European Patent Office (EPO) reveal that the number of applications for new patents is down 7% in the first two months of 2009. This is the first reduction in patent applications in over a decade, sparking fears that Europe’s knowledge economy is under threat.
As the deadline for submission to the EBoA is reached, a few more reports trickle in. From those who are in favour of software patents (lawyers of course):
Of these, some are very interesting, some are fairly pedestrian, some are horribly wordy and full of legal ‘analysis’, footnotes and references, some are fairly predictable ill-informed anti-patent rants, while others are merely irrelevant. The IPKat (who still can’t see what on Earth TRIPs has to do with the EPO) will let his readers decide which are which.
More from the same source: [via Digital Majority]
There have also been problems in the UK, where the Intellectual Property Office has issued four different Practice Notices relating to computer-implemented inventions in the last five years. CIPA is not in favour of such frequent changes, as patents have a lifetime of up to twenty years.
The EBoA (for EPO) is also receiving some more hostile responses.
(B) IF QUESTION 2 (A) IS ANSWERED IN THE NEGATIVE, IS A FURTHER TECHNICAL EFFECT NECESSARY TO AVOID EXCLUSION, SAID EFFECT GOING BEYOND THOSE EFFECTS INHERENT IN THE USE OF A COMPUTER OR DATA STORAGE MEDIUM TO RESPECTIVELY EXECUTE OR STORE A COMPUTER PROGRAM?
Congratulations. That is more creative for circumventing the law.
IBM may be fighting to protect Linux from FAT (c/f first report), but it is by no means opposed to software patenting. Being a veteran monopoly, it sticks to diplomacy and keeps quiet about it while patenting a whole load of rubbish. Latest example:
theodp writes “In 2006, IBM boasted it was ‘holding itself to a higher standard than any law requires because it’s urgent that patent quality is improved.’ On Thursday, the USPTO revealed that IBM was seeking a patent for Controlling and Using Virtual Universe Wish Lists. The product of six IBM inventors, Big Blue explained that a ‘virtual wish list device determines an item in a virtual universe that is desired by an avatar.’ Led by Chief Avatar Sam Palmisano, IBM is still drinking the virtual world Kool-Aid, dropping $80,000 to host a recent Second Life-based conference for 200 or so members of the IBM Academy of Technology. IBM indicated the virtual venue was chosen to avoid sending ‘the wrong kind of message’ (pdf) that something like a $400,000 real-world meeting might send during troubled economic times.”
IBM must realise that its patent hypocrisy is not helping GNU/Linux. It ought to show some determination to exterminate barriers to Free software; and not just about Linux, of which it is a prominent user. █
“IBM’s patent department is actively lobbying Europe to legalise software patents. They have invested millions in fighting example cases to leading European lawcourts such as the EPO’s Technical Boards of Appeal and the German Federal Court in order to soften and eventually remove European restrictions on patenting software. They have also threatened European politicians that IBM might close down local facilities if software patents are not legalised in Europe. IBM has also prevented the US government from conducting studies on the value of software patents for the national economy. In the wake of the Opensource hype, IBM’s rhetoric has become relatively moderate, but nonetheless it is supported by real pressure. IBM has acquired approximately 1000 European software patents whose legal status is currently unclear. Given the great number of software patents in IBM’s hands, IBM is one of the few software companies who may have a genuine interest in software patentability. Once software patents become assertable in Europe, an IBM tax of several billion EUR per year may be levied on European software companies.” [Read more]
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Posted in Finance, Identity Management, Mail, Marketing, Novell, SCO, Security, Servers, UNIX, Videos, Virtualisation at 6:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Last roundup of Novell news for this week, excluding SUSE
Shreepriya Gopalan claims to be the owner of Novell, but that’s just a bizarre little story which is not worth discussing. Let’s start with UNIX ownership (SCO trial).
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Posted in Europe, GNU/Linux, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Review, Scalix, Servers, Xandros at 5:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Another glance at H-P’s embrace of SLED 11; other notable news about SUSE and Xandros
SLED
SOME days ago we commented on H-P's support of SLED. Further to that, all the following items mention Novell and SLED in the same context:
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Novell, OpenSUSE at 4:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A few picks from the past week for those who wish to keep up with OpenSUSE
THE PAST week has been pretty decent for the OpenSUSE project. The word about 11.2 milestone 1 is still spreading and Heise, as usual, covered it as well:
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Posted in Europe, Law, Microsoft at 3:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft plays the game of politics in Brussels while the very same people may earn key positions in the US government
Microsoft’s Craig Mundie dislikes Free software and even transparency, but this did not prevent the Democrats (with Microsoft affinity [1, 2, 3]) from giving this man a prominent role in the government's overall judgment. A couple of days ago we showed how seriously Microsoft takes politics and there is another new article about it in The Inquirer.
Microsoft apparently makes you a good politician
WHEN TOP VOLES flee Redmond for greener pastures the fact that they have Microsoft on their CV means that they are eligible for a political career, apparently.
[...]
Another impatient Vole on the political circuit is Suzan DelBene, the former Windows Mobile executive now challenging Representative Dave Reichert. Reichert has a history of dealing with impatient Voles as he successfully fought off two political challenges from another former Microsoft employee, Darcy Burner.
This involvement of Microsoft in the United States government is sparse and complex, but right now we shall focus solely on Craig Mundie, who happens to be the latest example. Microsoft has a history is using the US government to fight the EU.
A reader has just sent us some information, alleging that “Mundie tries to flog ‘cloud computing’ under the guise of helping Europe overcome its lack of preparedness in education in science and technology.” Only a couple of weeks ago, Craig Mundie had what our reader calls “European Parliament breakfast.”
From page 14 of the PDF (Mundie’s talk):
With respect to the question Europe versus America, when you have these very fundamental changes, opportunity is created and in my view, the way to answer that question is really to ask “Is Europe prepared for the change?” And I would have to tell you that today, it isn’t by and large…
Going a little while back, we also find Craig Mundie going to Brussels and meeting those who are supposed to punish Microsoft for its serious violations of competition law.
Ever wondered why Microsoft software needs continually to be patched and updated? Microsoft Corp.’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie believes it’s because software development is still more an art than a science.
Mundie was speaking on one of his first foreign trips since taking over the technology strategy and policy roles from iconic company founder Bill Gates, at a press briefing in Brussels late Monday billed as a glance into the future of the technology industry.
[...]
Does Microsoft plan to do to Google what it did to Netscape? (Netscape was eclipsed when Microsoft attached its own Web browser, Internet Explorer, to Windows, sparking an antitrust battle with the U.S. department of Justice.)
“I hope so,” Mundie replied.
[..]
Mundie was in Brussels to give a keynote speech at a conference on European venture capitalism, hosted by Microsoft.
During his visit to the European capital he said he met with the staff of European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, as well as civil servants in the information society department of the Commission — not quite the top level meetings enjoyed by Gates on his occasional visits to Brussels in recent years.
Here we have yet another "schmoozing" trip. It’s important to explore and to understand how much room there is for manipulation of this ‘system’, which is practically just a group of human beings. They are all corruptible and only if their reputation is at stake will they stay loyal to principles worth obeying. █
“[A]mazing that corruption is excepted by the entire developed world. stunning that it has met with resistance only with some developing nations and maybe the european union. what should have been an overwhelming anger by all nations . the notion that developed nation are immune to corruption is bogus. microsoft did it in full view, without any hesitation. microsoft should be nailed for this.”
–Ashok Pai
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Patents at 2:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft’s PR contacts are Waggener Edstrom staff, who were patenting new analysis and surveillance methods
FOR THOSE WHO ARE not familiar with Waggener Edstrom (W-E), there are many ways to learn about it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Waggener Edstrom is effectively Microsoft’s PR handler (by far the biggest), which uses a name other than “Microsoft” because it lends credibility to its message. It’s only the illusion of independence. One of the many activities at Waggener Edstrom involves spying on reporters and this habit is already being extended to Twitter.
“This includes some anti-Linux press campaigns that are well documented.”We wanted to find out more about how W-E works. Along the way we found some interesting new factoids. From what we could gather, Waggener Edstrom goes a long way back with Microsoft. It grew along with Microsoft because of its manipulation that had been done many years ago. This includes some anti-Linux press campaigns that are well documented. Some very old exhibits from Comes vs Microsoft reveal the eternal presence of Waggener Edstrom, which must have assisted with manipulation of perceptions.
Oiaohm has discovered that W-E is actually listed as part of Microsoft. It’s “basically MS press,” he says. In W-E’s Windows-powered site he found this page which states: “A U.S. patent-pending product, the Narrative Network software is available immediately and can be used to analyze English, Chinese, German, French, Russian and Spanish text, eliminating the need for costly language translation.” The applicability of business method (or software) patents aside, what will such methods be used for?
“Patent holder for some very strange patents,” says oiaohm, who claims that W-E is “basically patenting a internet scanning tool to work out if your press is working.”
“Don’t miss the PR_Contacts,” adds oiaohm, who has finally realised what W-E’s role really involves. “That is a big one. How can they be independent if they are the PR contact for so many of Microsoft departments? Don’t Microsoft departments trust themselves talking to the public?” █
“We’ve got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Finance, Microsoft, Vista, Windows at 2:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft folks occupy Neowin; Citrix income down sharply; OQO possibly finished
ONE OF OUR regulars, Goblin, has been investigating this Web site called Neowin, which he suspected — as many others already know — to be biased in favour of Microsoft for some good reasons:
So the newest Neowin reporter is a bit of a joker? A bit of a comedian? Im not sure, but surprise, surprise, what he is (and this is quoted from his profile)
“…..works as a Microsoft Student Partner in his spare time.”
Marvellous.
MSPs, which we wrote about before, are unpaid Microsoft boosters who receive gifts from the company in order to promote and spread its products. Here is more:
Neowin, its reporters and its users can play with Windows all day I really dont mind. What I mind is when something is posted that (IMO) is likely to mislead someone into an incorect assumption about an alternative to Microsoft products.
I wont draw inference from Simon360s posts (which are quite typical from reporters from the Neowin site who quite happily swear, insult and in one case have a girlfriend pop up in defense.) What sort of outfit is being run here? I dont see Joe Willcox, Mary Jo Foley or any of the Microsoft employees Ive had the pleasure of debating with acting like this.
Well, Joe Willcox is out (since 2 days ago), so Microsoft’s pseudo-journalists pool is drying up.
Speaking of drying up, Microsoft's income declined by over 30% and its close ally Citrix has just reported a drop of 80%.
Citrix kept pretty tight control on costs, chopping across the board, but booked $20.7m relating to the restructuring it announced at the end of January, that would see it cut 10 per cent of its 4,600-strong workforce. This obviously took a bite out of profits in the quarter, and drove net income down by 80 per cent to $6.93m.
Microsoft and Citrix have meanwhile ruined Xen and turned it into more of a “Windows thing”, so even the Linux Foundation reluctantly abandons it.
This puts pressure on revenues and profits for the XenServer products even as the installed base grows, which it is doing and will continue to do, thanks in large part to the Microsoft partnership and the need for IT departments to get more efficient and flexible.
Citrix is just one new example. OQO insists on selling just Windows, so for the second time in about a week we find rumours that it has gone out of business.
WE’VE RECEIVED an email from a well placed source who said that OQO’s last chance at flogging itself off seems destined to fail.
[...]
Last week the outfit ran out of cash and was looking for a white knight. The week before pre-orders of the OQO Model 2+ Ultramobile PC (UMPC) were cancelled after OQO was unable to commit to a ship date. OQO is in such dire financial shape that it has even halted repair and warranty services too.
That’s what happens to those who insist on selling Microsoft products in a downturn. Perhaps they just cannot compete with comparable devices running Maemo, for example. █
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Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 1:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“My initial evaluation of Windows 7 shows that it’s really just Vista with a fresh coat of paint.”
–Randall Kennedy
Summary: Latest revelations about Vista 7 suggest that it is not what it’s cracked up to be
DAEMONFC has just taken Mandriva 2009 Spring for a spin and he loved it. Having also tried Vista 7, he reached the conclusion that the latest of GNU/Linux is well ahead of Microsoft’s vapourware — a product whose final state is unknown to everyone.
With my latest foray into Windows 7 build 7100 (official Release Candidate from MS Technet) I was experiencing largely the same errors/issues/bad performance as I had on the unofficial 7057 and 7077 wherein everyone replied “Hold your horses”
One of my test systems, this Athlon64 3200+ with 2 gigs of RAM and a Geforce 7650 GS was to see how 7 performed on hardware that was reasonable 3-4 years ago, and overall it failed terribly.
[...]
Mandriva 2009 Spring seems to have all the features one would want from Vista7 without the sucky undertaste of DRM, while managing to take up 5-6 times less hard drive space, a third the memory, and managing to work exceptionally well even on XP-era hardware that Microsoft abandoned long ago.
Mandriva 2009 Spring also clearly one-ups Ubuntu, especially in the area of Pulseaudio (which is often buggy and unreliable in Ubuntu Jaunty), users that this affects should move to Mandriva immediately.
GNU/Linux is already forcing Microsoft to lower its prices significantly, so Microsoft's earnings declined by over 30%. There is no end to that in sight, either. Microsoft is desperate to suffocate GNU/Linux because allowing it to grow leads to ‘nightmares’ (aka “fair competition”) like extensive ISV support.
Microsoft fires another shot at Linux netbooks by extending XP availability
[...]
Though it will still add a bit to the cost of a system, the amount has been pegged as low as $15. That’s a negligible amount and one most consumers will be willing to absorb to have access to an operating system that is far more familiar to most than any Linux distribution.
The extension will give Microsoft an entire year to build public awareness of Windows 7 and showcase Starter Edition – or scrap it and offer better pricing on another more complete version. Either way, today’s announcement could mean a continued rough road ahead for mainstream Linux.
For those who think that Windows XP is still acceptable, here is a new reminder about kill switches and other malicious features.
A kill switch (also called an e-stop) is a security measure used to shut off a device (usually in an emergency situation) in which it cannot be shut down in the usual manner.
[...]
In the example of Microsoft Windows, the company developed a verification tool named “Windows Genuine Advantage”, that originally activated a kill switch, or “reduced functionality mode,” on what Microsoft’s mandatory software’s deemed to be an unlicensed copy of the operating system.
It turns out again that Vista 7 is just as fat as people warned. And according to one columnist with a Linux-hostile track record, this “leaves [the] netbook market open for Linux.”
Microsoft’s newest operating system Windows 7 will leave much of the burgeoning netbook market open for Linux because of its relatively large footprint. This was confirmed to iTWire by a local Microsoft executive today, although she did not spell it out in those words.
There is more news about the bloat of Vista 7. For example:
i. Windows 7 is not that much faster than Vista
The blokes at Gizmodo have had a play with RC1 to see how it fared against Vista. They show that while everything in Window 7 feels better than Vista the benchmarking figures don’t bare this out much. The 32-bit versions of both Vista and Windows 7 were tested on the same machine with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM and a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT.
ii. Microsoft Admits Windows 7 Is Not really Suitable for Netbooks
By extending the availability of Windows XP until October 2010, it admits that Windows 7 on a netbook doesn’t really cut the mustard, and at the same time that the company has nothing to replace XP for that platform yet. It means that the lowliest version of Windows 7 is not a winner, and still gets beaten by Windows XP. ( Of course, they also want to take a huge swipe at Linux, all flavors – the availability of XP at bargain basement prices is going to make many think twice about ordering a netbook with any Linux distribution on it).
SJVN wrote about the reason why Microsoft just gives Vista 7 away.
So Vista users should go out of their way to thank Linux users for getting free, early access to Windows 7. Does anyone think for one moment that Microsoft would have ever made this offer if it hadn’t for the community Linux desktop distributions? I can’t imagine it.
Of course, there’s nothing ‘free’ about Microsoft’s Windows 7 RC offer. If you own a Vista PC, you already paid for the operating system once. If you’re going to buy a new PC for Windows 7, chances are, again, you’ll be paying Microsoft for Vista anyway. You may have hated Vista. You may never use Vista, but you almost always end up paying Microsoft $50 to $100 on any new PC. Linux users know all about this Microsoft tax.
To sum up what’s happening here, the margins of Windows erode significantly, but this is not enough to warrant Vista 7′s place on sub-notebooks because it’s just too heavy. This means that Microsoft will continue to compete against GNU/Linux with a $0 (or less) version of Windows. Microsoft is still trying to suffocate GNU/Linux (that how it’s used to dealing with competition), but it mostly suffocates itself in this process. █
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