01.24.11

ES: Las Tácticas de SCO de Nuevo: Descubren a Microsoft Florian Mintiendo

Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents at 12:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Resumen: La esperanza de Microsoft de impulsar Vista Phony 7 [sic] se sigue basando en mentiras sobre Android y muchos leguleyadas, Microsoft Florian juega un papel fundamental, aunque sólo sigue MINTIENDO.

OTRO semana, otro ataque contra GNU/Linux, por cortesía, por supuesto, de Microsoft Florian[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Florian_M%C3%BCller], que está tratando de ser otro Enderle/O’Gara (quienes atacan Android como estos atacan a la gente de Linux). Los grandes mentiras y acusaciones sin respaldo siguen volando, como las reclamaciones que hizo para TurboHercules (así es como comenzó la lucha de los grupos de presión contra Linux hace un año) antes de que resultara que TurboHercules es en parte propiedad de Microsoft. Para los no iniciados, la estrategia de Microsoft de Florian implica inundar los foros con mensajes repetidos (siempre niega los comentarios en su blog después la gente lo expone allí mismo en su propia plataforma) y que inunda a los periodistas con correo masivo con los pedacitos que quiere que se inserten en forma de artículos, que se le atribuyen por supuesto. Los periodistas deben aprender a ignorar mobbyists (Florian personaliza sus mensajes ligeramente, para que no se vea como e-mail en masa), especialmente los que no niegan una conexión a Microsoft y tiene un historial probado de ser pagados para hacer lobby para Microsoft. Microsoft Florian no puede negar esto. Es un mobbyist con experiencia y su táctica descarada (como abusar de los periodistas por correo y charlatanearlos) están bien documentados en Techrights.

Florian acaba de ser descubierto mintiendo de nuevo, pero la gran mayoría de la prensa no parece haber alcanzado a ella -la mentira- todavía. Un foro que Microsoft Florian regularmente trollea (insertar callos anti-Linux a un foro a favor de Linux es considerado Internet trolling ) esta ahora golpeando a Microsoft Florian [http://lwn.net/Articles/424107/], mientras que el enlace de este informe [http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/01/new-alleged-evidence-of-android-infringement-isnt-a-smoking-gun.ars], que dice:

Una mirada cercana a los archivos reales y la documentación adjunta, sin embargo, sugieren que no es un simple caso de copiar y pegar (copy & paste). Los archivos infractores se encuentran en un archivo comprimido en un componente de terceros suministrados por SONiVOX, miembro de la Alianza Abierta de Google Teléfono (OHA). SONiVOX, que antes se llamaba Sonic, desarrolla una síntesis de audio integrado (EAS) y el marco de acompañamiento envoltorios API de Java que comercializa como audioINSIDE.

“Más pruebas Florian Mueller es un troll pagado Microsoft”, lo llamó uno de nuestros lectores (IRC registros a aparecer en breve) y “Florian en realidad copió esta investigación[http://weblogs.java.net/blog/cayhorstmann/archive/2010/11/15/mystery-policynodeimpl-class]“, afirma otro. Hay una más en los registros del IRC (yo estaba fuera todo el tiempo que se discutió, la grabación TechBytes, después de irme a dormir).

“Tuve un deja vu lectura FM” análisis “,” escribió un lector, “porque lo he visto antes. Esto lo que hace Florian Miedo Incertidumbre y Duda-FUD vago. Puede ser probado o refutado. Es sólo Miedo Incertidumbre y Duda FUD a las personas … Para que los fabricantes piensen en WP”.

También hay un patético control de daños de las personas que odian a Linux y el ataque mientras haciendo como que no pasó nada. Los secuaces que luchan contra el Software Libre implican [http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/f6kpd/oracle_vs_google_its_not_looking_good_for_android/] que todos los que no está de acuerdo con Microsoft Florian es su servidor, a pesar de que nunca he tenido ninguna cuenta en Reddit. Eso es difamación. Como gnufreex dijo, “los compinches de Microsoft en Reddit me dicen que yo soy tú … De hecho, se lo dicen que a todos los que señalan que Florian Mueller MINTIO acerca de Android”

Aquí está uno de los análisis fundamentales que desmienten todo el FUD de Microsoft Florian [http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/oops-no-copied-java-code-or-weapons-of-mass-destruction-found-in-android/2162]:

A veces la maldad pura de lo que se publica en la web nos deja sin palabras. Especialmente cuando se levantó y repitió como un evangelio por sitios de renombre como Engadget. “Google copia el código de Oracle Java, pegó una nueva licencia, y lo envió”, informaron esta mañana.

Lo sentimos, pero eso no es cierto.

[...]

Lamentablemente, mientras que los artículos sensacionalistas como Engadget y Mueller recibirá un salpicón por toda la web y dejará miles de puntos de vista y cientos de comentarios, la aburrida verdad no atraerá tanta atención.

Exactamente.

“Código no fue copiado en la fuente de Android, después de todo [http://www.androidcentral.com/copied-code-not-android-source-after-all],” dice el titular de Android Central.

Los otros 37 ficheros existen también, pero está dentro de un archivo zip en una zona del árbol de las fuentes utilizadas para un conjunto de chips de audio en particular. Estos archivos parecen haber sido subidos por error, y tampoco fueron utilizados para construir Android o enviarlos con todos los dispositivos Android. Estos probablemente sólo se suprimiran del árbol, ya que no hacen nada.

Una historia más anti-Android demostrada falsa y nos trasladamos a los pastos. Vamos a prepararnos para la siguiente, porque todo el mundo quiere ver a algunos de esos verdes hermosos Android dólares. [ZDNet]

“Si yo fuera Google,” escribió gnufreex, “ya estaría demandando a Florian Mueller por difamación. Era evidente que trata de crear FUD para que los fabricantes de dispositivos se deshagan de Android y miren a WP7 ”

También ligado a este FUD de Microsoft Nick [http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/236580.asp], alegando que el artículo “es muyyy incorrecto … Schmidt partió de Novell hacia Google en 2001. Eso fue antes de que Novell compre SUSE y Ximian. Y, sin embargo, que el artículo afirma que fue Schmidt, quien inició esos.”

Todos estos ataques en contra Google a menudo resultan estar CONECTADOS a Microsoft. ¿Hay alguien sorprendido? █

Many thanks to Eduardo Landaveri of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

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01.23.11

Microsoft’s Attacks on Google and Android: Ben Edelman, ‘Flagrant Misdirection’, and More

Posted in Deception, FUD, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Oracle at 1:02 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Disregarding the truth allegedly for financial reasons

Gretchen Carlson Summary: Ben Edelman is accused of working on behalf of Microsoft and Microsoft Florian too seems to be flogging the same agenda, even if they both distort the truth

GOOGLE is under attack. Techrights is not a defender of Google (in fact we challenge Google to change for the better and to abolish software patents), but when the attacks on Google affect Free software, then everyone in the community should view these attacks as somewhat personal.

In 2010 we wrote a great deal about the Edelman-backed “Consumer Watchdog” attacking Google, probably at someone’s behest (Microsoft is a major client of Edelman) and days ago we also showed Microsoft Florian libelling Google as part of a series of his disgusting attacks on Android/Linux. We’ve been tracking many of them and also addressed the lies they contain. We’ll do so again in a moment.

First, we wish to draw attention to this article from the MSBBC (which everyone ought to know is biased in favour of Microsoft due to entryism). It says that someone called Ben Edelman has launched a little smear campaign against Google and Google says he is working for Microsoft. Yes, we have seen this before and the MSBBC insists on denying it. It writes:

The Californian company responded by suggesting he was actually working on behalf of its rival, Microsoft.

But Mr Edelman told the BBC that Google was launching “personal attacks” to distract people from its own behaviour.

And yet, he does not deny a payment from Microsoft. Bear in mind that Microsoft has done that before, even recently in LSE [1, 2, 3]. It’s not unusual for Microsoft employees on full-time payroll to do that too. Many of them are disguised as “researchers”.

Microsoft is unable to catch up with Google, so the strategy shifted to characterising Google as an evil empire. There’s nothing new in this strategy and we gathered dozens of examples.

“No doubt that’s the goal of “closed source partisans” for all the recent anti-Android musings in the press.”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawThe second person who is attacking Google these days (regarding patents, codecs, Android, etc.) is “closed source partisan” Microsoft Florian, which is what The Inquirer called him. Not so easily deceived by the name “FOSS patents” then, eh? “No doubt that’s the goal of “closed source partisans” for all the recent anti-Android musings in the press,” wrote Groklaw. “Here’s my advice: consider the source, and stay tuned.”

Assume it’s a case just like TurboHercules, which turned out to be partly owned by Microsoft. It was the same with T3 and with SCO, which later turned out to have been paid by Microsoft too. Going back to Microsoft Florian and examining the news, before his latest lies got exposed (he helps pull another SCO while communicating with the people who helped SCO in the same way), Groklaw wrote: “Folks, like I said earlier, stay tuned. No one can know until discovery is done and the experts have presented everything. This insightful comment from Slashdot shows you why you shouldn’t assume but need to trace code and licenses more carefully than some are doing. This isn’t a case like SCO’s where a party was speaking regularly to the press. So we can rely on the filings only, not on those who may or may not have agendas and who may or may not be reliable anyhow.”

Here is one of the better known rebuttals to the lies from Microsoft Florian. It puts it quite nicely when it says:

Florian Mueller, who by the way is neither a lawyer nor a developer although he plays one on TV.

Other mobbyists/lobbyists, who also front for Microsoft, are actually more like actors than they are technical people. Jonathan Zuck comes to mind. Being a pretender is part of the job and Microsoft minions will play along with the script. Guess what? Just as expected, Microsoft booster Matt Rosoff [1, 2, 3, 4] continues his FUD campaign from the new platform; he writes falsehoods like “intellectual property lawyer Florian Mueller,” which is total disinformation. Groklaw wrote about it: “First everyone called him a FOSS activist. Now they call him a lawyer. He’s neither. How he gets journalists to repeat his oeuvre without doing any fact checking is a skill, no doubt about it. What would the word be for that skill? : D”

“First everyone called him a FOSS activist. Now they call him a lawyer. He’s neither.”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawWell, that’s the same thing ACT is doing. It pretends to be working for small businesses when it fact it does exactly the opposite. It is paid by Microsoft to do this. Mass-mailing journalists and deceiving them is part of this lobbying campaign, stuffing panels too sometimes.

Groklaw has this very comprehensive rebuttal to the FUD from Microsoft Florian. Usually he is just ignored there, or banned even. Barbara put it nicely in her comment where she called Microsoft Florian F[redacted] M[redacted] because of the obvious consequences:

There are two ways to deal with lying trolls like F[redacted] M[redacted].

1. Ignore them.
2. Expose them.

For this site (groklaw), ignoring Mr. Flagrant Misdirection is the best policy,
since he *wants* his name mentioned on high-profile reputable sites. As one
scammer said, anything that gets him a higher search engine rank is worth it.

It’s why I won’t post his name here, and would encourage others to do the same.
Other pseudo-nyms, if you don’t particularly like using the “redacted”
brackets:

Florid Mullet

Florian Sockpuppet

F****** M******

“The FMTroll” (goes well with “The MoGTroll”)

People in the know will know who you’re referring to, while not giving
Florescent Mulehead any google-juice.

“More people realize that F[redacted] M[redacted] can’t be just filtered out,” gnufreex wrote in IRC a few hours ago, pointing to this LWN comment that says: “The problem with MF is the fact that he pushes his “news” to non-geek press so we can not just ignore him. We can ignore his comments (this is great feature to have and it is implremented on LWN), but we can not ignore MF-pushed articles in mainstream press! I don’t know if he pushes Microsoft agenda for low reason called “money” or for some higher reason, but the fact of the matter: he does it regularly and quite efficiently. Thus we should keep attention on what he’s doing… To filter him out is as dangerous as to filter out Oracle-related or Microsoft-related news in general: few people likes most of these news, but we can not just ignore them.”

LibreOffice’s Charles-H. Schulz wrote to me: “do you think Florian Mueller has gotten a new customer? #ORCL”

Wayne Borean wrote a quick post about it last night:

OK, so Florian is claiming that Google has infringed on Oracle’s copyrights, and he’s written up a huge explanation of what he’s found. But he’s not a programmer. In other words, he most probably doesn’t have the skills to evaluate what he’s looking at.

Curiously his arguments sound just like the arguments that Ken Brown of The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution made in Samizdat, his as yet unpublished proof that Linus Torvalds isn’t responsible for the Linux Kernel. It’s what, only six years overdue?

Here is Slashdot setting the record straight. Jan Wildeboer, who knows Microsoft Florian personally, says that “Microsoft sees Android taking over the mobile market. Florian Mueller produces “evidence” on Android and Oracle. Coincidence?”

A lot of the nonsense germinates/originates from Microsoft Florian’s ‘planting’ of the FUD in Engadget, which embarrassed itself by spreading false information that came from this load of nonsense that’s a ripoff of research which Microsoft Florian pretended to be his. Rather than apologise for its mistake, Engadget added more noise and it just shows what low standards Engadget really has. For those who cannot remember, Engadget also gives room to former Microsoft employees who attack Android in there. It is named and shamed here, with specific reference to the writer Nilay Patel:

I don’t know the credentials of Mr Mueller, but the name of the blog FOSS Patents is ironical as Free Software Foundation has been fighting against ‘software patents in general.

[...]

It appears Mueller’s findings are nowhere close to ‘help’ Oracle extort money from Google over Java. As the database company, which has been sued by the government for overcharging them, Oracle has taken a U-turn from their stand on Java, which resulted in Apache resigning from Java Committee. Free Software Foundation also criticized Oracle’ Java accusations and came out with support for Google.

Popular blogsite Engadget posted a blog rebuffing such claims. Nilay Patel wrote nothing new but repeated what Mueller wrote in his blog. The worst part of Patel’s blog was ‘unrelated’ mention to Prystar vs Apple case. Prystar was selling hardware with MacOS installed on it. If this is the best example Patel came come out with, I can do nothing but sigh.

[...]

In today’s coverage, especially by the pro-Apple blogs, I see it as nothing more than creating FUD to scare developers and users, especially when the battle is far from over.

The name of Engadget has been harmed by this whole routine/stunt of Microsoft Florian. Android’s reputation too has been harmed, no matter how many corrections will be posted. The ROI in lobbying is very high and this whole saga just proves it. █

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01.22.11

It’s SCO Tactics All Over Again: Microsoft Florian Caught Lying

Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents, SCO at 3:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s hope of boosting Vista Phony 7 [sic] still relies on lies regarding Android and many lawsuits; Microsoft Florian plays an instrumental role, even if he just keeps lying

ANOTHER week, another attack on GNU/Linux, courtesy of course of Microsoft Florian, who is trying to be another Enderle/O’Gara (attacking Android like these people attack Linux). Those big lies and unbacked allegations carry on flying, such as the claims he made for TurboHercules (that’s how he started the anti-Linux lobbying a year ago) before it turned out that TurboHercules is partly owned by Microsoft. For the uninitiated, Microsoft Florian’s strategy involves flooding forums with repeated messages (he denied comments in his blog after people had exposed him right there in his own platform) and he is mass-mailing journalists with bits he wants inserted into articles, attributed to him of course. Journalists will need learn to ignore mobbyists (Florian personalises his messages slightly, so they can’t see it’s mass-mailed), especially ones who do not deny a connection to Microsoft and have a proven history of being paid to lobby. Microsoft Florian himself would not deny this. He is an experienced lobbyist and his shameless tactics (like abusing mail and schmoozing journalists) are well documented in Techrights.

Florian has just been caught lying again, but the mainstream press does not appear to have caught up with it yet. One forum that Microsoft Florian regularly trolls (inserting anti-Linux tripe to a pro-Linux forum is considered Internet trolling) is right now slamming Microsoft Florian while linking to this report, which says:

A close look at the actual files and accompanying documentation, however, suggest that it’s not a simple case of copy and paste. The infringing files are found in a compressed archive in a third-party component supplied by SONiVOX, a member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance (OHA). SONiVOX, which was previously called Sonic, develops an Embedded Audio Synthesis (EAS) framework and accompanying Java API wrappers which it markets as audioINSIDE.

“More proof Florian Mueller is a paid Microsoft troll,” called it one reader of ours (IRC logs to appear shortly) and “Florian in fact copied this research,” alleges another. There is a more in the IRC logs (I was away the entire time it was discussed, recording TechBytes and then sleeping).

“I had deja vu reading FM’s “analysis”,” wrote one reader, “because I have seen it before. This what Florian does is just vague FUD. It can be proven or disproven. It is just to FUD people… To make manufacturers think about WP7″.

There is also pathetic damage control from people who hate Linux and attack it while pretending not to. Those anti-FOSS minions try to imply that everyone who disagrees with Microsoft Florian is yours truly, even though I never had any account in Reddit. That’s libel. As gnufreex put it, “Microsoft cronies at Reddit are telling me that I am you … In fact, they say that to everyone who points out Florian Mueller lied about Android”

Here is one of the key analyses that disprove all that FUD from Microsoft Florian:

Sometimes the sheer wrongness of what is posted on the web leaves us speechless. Especially when it’s picked up and repeated as gospel by otherwise reputable sites like Engadget. “Google copied Oracle’s Java code, pasted in a new license, and shipped it,” they reported this morning.

Sorry, but that just isn’t true.

[...]

Sadly, while sensational articles like Engadget’s and Mueller’s will get splashed all over the web and lavished with thousands of views and hundreds of comments, the boring truth will rate no such attention.

Exactly.

“Copied code not in Android source after all,” says the headline from Android Central.

The other 37 files exist as well, but are inside a zip file in an area of the source tree used for one particular audio chipset. These files look like they were uploaded by mistake, and also aren’t used to build Android or ship with any Android devices. These will probably just be deleted from the tree, as they don’t do anything.

One more anti-Android story proven false and put out to pasture. Let’s get ready for the next one, because everyone wants to see some of those beautiful, green Android dollars. [ZDNet]

“If I were Google,” wrote gnufreex, “I would be suing Florian Mueller for libel. He clearly tries to create FUD so device manufacturers dump Android for WP7″

He also linked to this FUD from Microsoft Nick, alleging that the “article is veeeery incorrect… Schmidt left from Novell for Google in 2001. That is before Novell bought SUSE and Ximian. And yet, that article claims that it was Schmidt who started those.”

All these attacks on Google often turn out to be connected to Microsoft. Is anybody shocked? █

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01.18.11

Oracle and SAP Get a Lesson About the Harms of Patents

Posted in Oracle, Patents at 4:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Aggression as a business model

Summary: DrugLogic and 2FA have a case against Oracle and Versata still pressures SAP

OVER THE PAST couple of years we have argued that the world’s largest software companies benefit from and lobby for software patents. Oracle and SAP have been fighting a lot in court recently, over intellectual monopolies of course. But both companies share a pain, too. They are occasionally being targeted by intellectual monopolies of other companies and these monopolies are notably software patents.

“Oracle sued by drug-safety software vendor” says this recent report:

Oracle is being sued by drug-safety software vendor DrugLogic over alleged patent violations, according to a complaint filed Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

DrugLogic makes software for managing clinical drug trials as well as monitoring drugs after they go to market. The suit centers on competing products sold by Relsys and Phase Forward, health care software companies that were acquired by Oracle in March 2009 and April, respectively.

Speaking of drug safety, people are safest when patents on drug development are weakened or nullified (a month ago we learned that “Diagnostic Tests Can Be Patented, U.S. Court Rules”). India is ahead in that regard and this new text says “INDIA REJECTS SHAM PATENT APPLICATION FOR LIFESAVING HIV DRUG: Pharmaceuticals in India now free to help HIV patients worldwide”:

This weekend, India rejected an unmerited drug patent application, paving the way for access to lifesaving medication for HIV patients across the world. This groundbreaking victory for patients sets an important precedent to stop pharmaceutical companies from gaming the patent system, marking a new era of hope for millions of people living with HIV all over the world.

Getting back to Oracle, Courthouse News Service reveals that another rival “Demands $110 Million from Oracle”, alleging “conspiracy and corporate theft”:

Oracle Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary Passlogix stole confidential information to deprive a competitor of royalties, force it into bankruptcy, and use the stolen intellectual property for their own profit, 2FA Technology says in a $110 million claim in Federal Court.

The only defendants in the 33-page complaint are Oracle and Passlogix. But 2FA says the “conspiracy and corporate theft” were led by Passlogix’s CEO Marc Boroditsky and its Chief Technology Office Marc Manza, “with active participation of Passlogix’s senior management team.”

This is reminiscent of Oracle’s case against SAP and vice versa. SAP meets some inconvenient software patents, which it lobbies for in Europe. There is a lawsuit against Microsoft and SAP [1, 2]. The Versata case is also still on:

A federal judge has ruled that software maker SAP AG is entitled to a new trial over what it owes Versata Software Inc. in a patent case, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

Maybe they refer to this report. In any event, IDG covered this too:

The company had alleged that SAP’s Business Suite software and associated services violated a number of its patents. Formerly known as Trilogy Software, Versata sells products for business rules management, product configuration and other areas.

Meanwhile, SAP is still faced with the landmark $1.3 billion judgment a jury recently awarded Oracle in connection with its corporate-theft suit against the company. SAP has not ruled out an appeal of the award.

Why are Oracle and SAP asking for this whole patent trouble? They would be better off competing based on real merit. █

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12.20.10

LibreOffice Finds Some Patent Assurance in the OIN

Posted in Microsoft, OIN, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, Oracle, Patents at 3:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“What we’re seeing though now can be loosely described as patent terrorism, where people are using their patent horde as a threat [...] It’s almost like a cold war stand over tactic; where I have these patents and if you breach these patents, I’m going to come after you and sue you.”

–James Eagleton, systems product manager for Sun Microsystems

Summary: The Open Invention Network (OIN) gets the Document Foundation as a licensee; other patent news of interest

THE Document Foundation (TDF) and LibreOffice were covered here a couple of times before and this whole initiative does pretty well so far. Oracle is already in the OIN and following advice from Groklaw — although probably not related to it — TDF is joining too and makes this announcement:

The Document Foundation has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), to further extend the free software ecosystems. By becoming a licensee, The Document Foundation – developer of LibreOffice, a free office suite for personal and corporate productivity – has joined the growing list of organizations that recognize the importance of participating in the Open Invention Network, in order to protect the free software ecosystem from the risks associated to software patents.“The Document Foundation is a major free software project, and LibreOffice a key office suite for creating, managing and sharing documents. By becoming a licensee of the Open Invention Network, we fight software patents – which stifle innovation and encourage predatory business practices – and at the same time we improve the protection of our software projects,” said Charles Schulz, Member of TDF Steering Committee.

Coincidentally, a lot of the TDF is European, which may help reduce the patent threat to it. Vis-à-vis Europe and patents, the “EU patent” [1, 2, 3, 4] had Italy dodge the rest of the pack (they are smart for avoiding such European problems which get falsely marketed) and then excluded as a result. Whilst European lawyers are excited, developers of software — no matter whether free/libre or proprietary — should be concerned. Even an aggressive/abrasive pro-software patents lawyer Gene Quinn seems to have had some Eureka moments given what he posted recently. A patent lawyer who focuses on games is contesting Groklaw’s position while streaming gaming content becomes a patent:

OnLive may not be offering a wide range of games at the moment, but the technology behind the service has proven impressive. The company now has another powerful weapon in its arsenal, as a patent on cloud-based gaming and the streaming of content has been granted to Steve Perlman, OnLive’s CEO.

Patents are a tax which is benefiting trolls and lawyers the most; can they be eliminated also for the sake of software Freedom? It’s Microsoft’s last resort now that it accepts more Office counterfeiting and sues companies using patents. █

“Search engines be da**ed, it’s the OS that generates money – if the world switches to linux, it will switch to OpenOffice too.”

–Motley Fool (heavily Microsoft influenced)

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Red Hat and Oracle Respond to EIFv2, Microsoft Seemingly Plans More Patent Aggression

Posted in Courtroom, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents, RAND, Red Hat at 2:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The European Interoperability Framework does not go far enough to serve as a bridge between free/libre applications and this helps Microsoft

THE question about software patents can determine winners and losers. It’s a battle which takes place in the courts rather than the markets and it’s not over yet. The most recent Red Hat USPTO/SCOTUS news helped show the company’s great interest in the outcome and here is further news coverage of that:

A group of US companies including Red Hat, Yahoo, eBay, Electronic Arts, General Motors and HP, have joined together to challenge a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which threatens to seriously exacerbate problems in the already highly controversial software patent system within the United States.

The group has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking correction of the standard for inducing patent infringement, relating to the case of Global-Tech Appliances, Inc v. SEB S.A. Under the existing ruling, the Court of Appeals held that organisations and individuals can be held liable and prosecuted for infringing patents of which they have no knowledge. It used a standard of “deliberate indifference,” which it then equated to negligence.

[...]

The Supreme Court challenge is likely to be scheduled for sometime this spring.

Red Hat employees have commented on EIFv2 (we’ve asked them for feedback and received some) and Red Hat’s Mark Bohannon also put his output in Red Hat’s official Web site. Yesterday we showed that he put it in another site (Spanish translation), unless Red Hat put it there for him.

Richard Adhikari writes about the subject for ECT and gathers comments from various stakeholders:

The European Union has announced public procurement rules for technology that appear to favor open source.

The European Interoperability Framework sets out interoperability standards to create a trusted information exchange between public administrations of member countries.

The EIF encourages open specifications for the framework.

Members of the Business Software Alliance, which offer proprietary software, are apparently contesting this provision.

The announcement of the EIF is the another step in a years-long process.

“The EU’s work in this area has been going on since at least 2000, when OpenOffice.org was named as the preferred word processor for Denmark’s government,” Bill Roth, executive vice president at LogLogic, told LinuxInsider.

The European Parliament’s press office did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

In “Trond’s Opening Standard” (Oracle blog, not Oracle’s statement though) it is asked whether EIFv2 is “a new beginning” and the opening goes like this:

The most controversial document in the history of the European Commission’s IT policy is out. EIF is here, wrapped in the Communication “Towards interoperability for European public services”, and including the new feature European Interoperability Strategy (EIS), arguably a higher strategic take on the same topic.

Leaving EIS aside for a moment, the EIF controversy has been around IPR, defining open standards and about the proper terminology around standardization deliverables. Today, as the document finally emerges, what is the verdict?

Let us remember that Oracle uses patents offensively, notably in the Oracle vs. Google case that Groklaw continues to cover.

Groklaw quotes a page which is no longer accessible at the old address but can still be found here. Citing this letter [PDF] it says that “[p]atents do not give protection to inventive small businesses because they are impossible to enforce” (not news).

“A false assumption is made that an SME holding a patent will have ‘protection’ for their related investment in R&D and any resultant innovation,” the letter says.

This whole debate matters because the law is increasingly discriminatory in the sense that it discourages the small person with the small business. As Microsoft fails to make new products stick, it is turning further into the realms of patent trolling as white-collar racketeering company [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. A new blog post titled “Microsoft patent chief: 2010 was a significant year of invention” led Groklaw to saying: “Uh oh. Writers call that foreshadowing. From the blog: “Patents will continue to play a key role in fostering technologies that enable interaction with people in new, unexpected ways. Our commitment to world-class creativity and invention in computer science and our R&D investment will enable Microsoft to continue setting the standard for patent quality in the technology industry.” That means they want you to pay them.”

To quote directly from the blog post:

…Microsoft Chief Patent Officer Bart Eppenauer notes in a blog post that 2010 will “go down in history as a significant year for creativity and invention at Microsoft.”

When they say “invention” they means patents, which EIFv2 allows them to embed inside formats and protocols (e.g. OOXML and FAT, respectively), in order to marginalise software freedom and competition from the likes of Red Hat. █

12.17.10

New Details Surface About Novell/Microsoft/AttachMSFT [sic] Deal

Posted in Apple, Deals, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Patents at 2:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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. █

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11.15.10

Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison Get Even Closer After Attacking the Linux-based Android Using Patents, Google Becomes Software Patents Foe

Posted in Apple, Europe, Google, Java, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents at 2:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Google starts arguing against patenting of software having had its flagship operating system attacked by the Oracle and Apple patent portfolios

THE PREVIOUS post was yet another discussion about the harms of patents, especially when they get used offensively. Oracle and Apple are both large companies, so patents (monopolies) work well for them. Java’s founder recently said that Steve Jobs is a liar (not exact quote). It happened right after Java was harmed by Apple which had indicated no real commitment to it. Now, let us bear in mind the relationship between Jobs and Ellison [1, 2, 3]. Why would Apple want to harm an Oracle product? Well, the answer turns out to be that it’s not so simple because “Apple Joins Oracle For Java Development” and this means “Android Trouble” (and thus good news for Apple’s hypePhone). As one insightful blogger put it:

Bad news for Google Android. Oracle and Apple have announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X.

Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.

Oracle chief and Steve Jobs are close friends and Oracle recently sued Google over Java use in Android. Since then Oracle has intensified efforts to marginalise Google by taking IBM off the development of Harmony Project which Google’s Android relied on. Now, getting Apple involved with OpenJDK means added troubles for Google.

IBM was at one point accused by some for similar reasons (upon its recent announcement). We mostly cover Java news in our daily links, but this time we make the exception to also show the following aftermath:

IBM Backs Oracle, Increases Trouble For Google Android

Corporates have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests. IBM is standing with its rival Oracle to protect its Java interests.
Reducing Java-Dependency

After the attack by Oracle on Google, everyone should be finding ways to minimize dependency on Java. Libre Office will do that, too.

Suffice to say, adding to this we have Microsoft MVPs like de Icaza and some other longtime .NET boosters like Tim Anderson flinging FUD at Java (we choose not to add links here, especially so as not to feed their FUD). Groklaw, on the other hand and despite smears from Microsoft mobbyists (again, we choose to exclude links or name names), helps show that Google’s tactless stance on patents may be changing now that it’s a common litigation target (even Google's free/libre software gets sued for patent violations, which can complicate distribution and redistribution). Not only Groklaw pointed this out in an analysis we cited over the weekend; patent boosters too are starting to feel rather baffled by Google’s 180:

Google Says Oracle’s Patents Are Invalid Abstract Ideas, But Why?

[...]

Granted, its fairly common to “throw in the kitchen sink” when raising claims and defenses, and time will only tell whether this Bilski defense is just posturing, or whether Google will use this case as a platform to campaign against issued patents (recall the Bilski decision itself deals with a patent application).

Jonas from the FFII enthusiastically asks, “Google ready to kill software patents?”

Google on Oracle vs Google:
“Each of the Patents-in-Suit is invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because one or more claims are directed to abstract ideas or other non-statutory subject matter.”

CUDOS Google! Refusing software patents like this the right thing to do for innovation!

An article written by the brilliant Mark Ballard may therefore require some updating; Google is said to be involved in reforming UK copyright/patent law. How so? We shall see. Based on the above, Ballard may be off target this time around when he states in the beginning (alongside a famous image):

British coders have awoken with a fright after a two-year sleep of reason to find the software patent threat looming.

The bells have been ringing in Blissville ever since the Guardian reported that David Willetts, the science and universities minister, was reopening the software patent question with a review of UK intellectual property laws. And that Google was behind it.

The mail list of the UK chapter of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure sprang into life on the news, and after displaying barely a hint of life for a year, and not much more than rapid eye movement for long before that.

The UK hasn’t looked so perky for two and a half years, having slept even through all the jitter in the US over the Supreme Court’s Bilski decision on business method patents.

Google’s priorities appear to have changed and all those lawsuits against Android have hopefully helped Google understand that it does not really need software patents. It’s the cost and complication (e.g. distribution and redistribution) which make it so. Java too gradually became Free software, so it’s time for its patents to go “poof!”

If one wants to really have patent trouble (with Microsoft even), there are some new instruction on how to install the Mono Trojan called Banshee:

Banshee team has announced the release of version 1.9.0, which is a development release. The new Banshee has a neat option called ‘Play After’, which inserts a track into the queue right after the track, album, or artist currently playing thus giving more control to the listener.

Mono is also required by an application which is being promoted in YouTube this month.

One must pay attention to the anti-Java FUD that comes from Mono boosters these days. Google on the other hand seems to be softening and hopefully it will decide to help abolish software patents altogether. The productive approach to take here is to give Google the benefit of the doubt because never before did Google use patents offensively (it did use them defensively). Google recently took a major shot at MPEG-LA — a move not quite foreseen by anyone (freeing videos from codec patents), so maybe there is genuine change brewing. █

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