08.11.11

Growing Opposition to Microsoft-Led Cartels and Patent Trolls

Posted in Microsoft, Patents at 8:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Harming the United States and even the entire world with monopolistic practices

Summary: The OIN grows further, providing somewhat of a defence against Microsoft’s patent cartels but not against its patent trolls, notably Intellectual Ventures (IV)

AS THE patent storm looms over more and more companies, the OIN grows bigger, pooling together an arsenal of Linux proponents that do not oppose software patents (some are actually proponents of software patents).

The latest additions are the former home of Patent Troll Tracker and also Twitter, which routinely complains about software patents. To quote SJVN:

In case you’ve been under a rock for the last decade, you might not know that today’s technology wars aren’t over who has the best prices, the most features, or the greatest quality. No, in 2011, instead of working on innovating, tech. giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle, are now wasting their resources on intellectual property (IP) lawsuits. So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that networking powerhouse Cisco and social networking force Twitter, is joining the Linux patent protection group, the Open Invention Network (OIN).

The problem with OIN is that it is not effective against trolls as it cannot strike back against them to deter or to eliminate/defuse an attack.

There is this good new article about patent trolls “in all shapes and sizes”. It also covers the cartel of Microsoft’s patent troll, IV. To quote: “In recent months, especially following a widely praised piece from This American Life on Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures, many outside the tech sector are becoming aware of the nightmare the software patent system in America has created for start-ups, inventors and even major corporations—an unfortunate development in a faltering economy where new jobs are scarce and much-needed.”

Yesterday we saw Mr. Cuban calling for the end of software patents and a software patent holder calls it a “troll”, unsurprisingly. Those who are in favour of software patents are there to defend their own monopoly/ies on algorithms.

Those who benefit from software patents are lawyers, their clients, and the patent trolls. “But many of the investors and founders Betabeat spoke with said patent litigation was a costly expense,” alleges Betabeat, “one that forced tech companies to spend money on lawyers instead of hiring even more employees. “We need to face the facts: patent law is killing job creation,” wrote billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban over the weekend. “If the current administration wants to improve job creation, change patent law and watch jobs among small technology companies develop instantly.”

“And it’s not just small start-ups that are feeling the pinch. Big firms like Microsoft and I.B.M. have built up massive war chests of patents and now have as much interest in protecting the dysfunctional system as reforming it, even if Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said that “if people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.””

Well, ironically he bankrolled the world’s biggest patent troll, IV. It sometimes seems like the proprietary software cartel plans to collude against Free software not just using patent pools but also patent trolls.

Let’s not forget that Apple is now using embargo too (Apple ban attempts were covered here twice before):

Now AFAICS the main point of Apples complaint centers around the uniqueness of its design, which they registered in the US, europe and a few other places too (and trust me, if they could they would do it for the whole galaxy and all possible parallel universes).

Well, Apple’s tablet is not so different from CrunchPad/JooJoo which predates the iPad (there are even examples from the 1970s). There is a lot more prior art. Here is Apple’s itch and aggressive action, which we wrote about twice before, emphasising that Apple has become a shameless embargo company. Apple cultists are already criticising Techrights for ‘daring’ to criticise Apple for these actions.

The solution is probably to redesign the legal system associated with patents. In Yahoo! News there is currently this article calling for the end of all patents, not just software patents. Quoting the opening parts:

Apple just got an Android tablet called the Samsung Galaxy Tab banned in Australia and Europe, thanks to its supposed infringements of Apple patents. Apple’s also trying to get all Android smartphones and tablets made by HTC banned, and it’s taking potshots at the Motorola Xoom as well. All three companies are firing back with their own countersuits, giving the whole proceedings the feel of global nuclear armageddon.

How did this happen? Aren’t patents supposed to encourage innovation? I grew up being taught that inventors like Thomas Edison raced to discovery, so that they could file a patent on it. I never imagined a world where patents would be used as weapons of war, but that’s what it’s come to these days.

Here’s why the patent system as we know it is broken, and why we need to get rid of it now:

Maybe it’s only a matter of time before the US patent system revises its workings or simply collapses. If this is how business is done now, then the US will lose its ability to compete with the rest of the world. The problem is that these American multinationals also lobby to export their laws to other continents and countries, using lobbying and other forms of bribery (see what happens in New Zealand for example). There was no reason to embargo Galaxy products without hearing the other side of the story (e.g. about prior art) and this is clearly not a case of counterfeiting; no Android-based product bears an Apple logo, except maybe in rogue, unofficial markets.

Linux is winning, so Microsoft and Apple fight hard. █

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The Microsoft Patent Deal is With SUSE Now, So Boycott SUSE

Posted in OpenSUSE, SLES/SLED at 8:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

SUSE is a patent trap

Summary: Reflections on the patent deal’s transition from Novell to SUSE and what we should do in order to prevent Microsoft from taxing GNU/Linux

THERE are serious problems in SUSE not just because it fell deeper into Microsoft’s arms (see our SUSE-Microsoft deal coverage) but also because it fails technically for some. As we showed the other day, a lot of the talented developers and managers left, putting the project/company in the hands of Microsoft-friendly people. Outside the circles of SUSE, there does not seem to be much progress as there are hardly any new releases, just security releases addressing security problems [1, 2, 3, 4].

Although there is a conference coming, it will not be the same as in prior years. Some of the key staff is no longer with Novell.

Novell’s PR team was almost entirely decimated based on the activity (or lack thereof) in the respective blogs and the scarcity of new promotional videos. There is this newly-uploaded one with Geeko in it, perhaps symbolising the company’s shift to Microsoft-taxed distro as a business model.

“Over 200 of the openSUSE Members voted, with 90% in favor of the current strategy document,” says the OpenSUSE new site, but did the OpenSUSE community get to vote regarding that recent deal with Microsoft? Or as Groklaw recently put it, did the community get involved in the press releases and blog posts from Novell’s PR blog when it speaks on behalf of SUSE? Of course not. The control by a ‘community’ is merely an illusion. Now that the deal with Microsoft binds SUSE rather than Novell, we do call for a boycott of SUSE. Novell is no more. We’ll close with this new autotuned video of Novell because it is quite neat and merely a remnant of a now-defunct company. █

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Links 11/8/2011: Desktop Summit, More Linux Tablets

Posted in News Roundup at 3:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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IRC Proceedings: August 10th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 1:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channels now

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The UK Shares Romania’s Pain as Free Software Excluded From Public Services

Posted in Europe at 1:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Britain’s open source voice, Glyn Moody, interprets the situation in Romania while Mark Ballard, a watchdog journalist in the UK, shows lack of cooperation with the public at the Bristol City Council after it gave to Microsoft and its allies taxpayers’ money which had been allocated to Free/libre software

We recently confronted and wrote about Romanian procurement which excluded GPL-licensed software. We complained about policy being amiss after someone from Romania had informed us of the situation, instigating further backlash from British journalist Glyn Moody, who writes:

But the larger issue, at least for this blog, is why anyone would impose such a restriction. The system seems self-contained, so there would be no issue with the GPL being extended to other code. Moreover, since the program would presumably only be used by the Romanian criminal justice system, the code would not be “distributed”, and thus there would be no requirement to share it – anyone got any views/experience on this aspect of procurement?

So in effect there would be no difference from using proprietary code in this case, other than the ability to draw on GPL code, which would allow the people writing this app to draw on existing software, potentially simplifying their task.

On the other hand, distributing the code anyway would produce a number of benefits. For example, others could look at the code and help improve it (not least by finding security issues.) It might be used for other projects, both in Romania, and elsewhere, and would in any case strengthen the open source community in the former by adding to the country’s national software commons. Incidentally, these arguments also apply to other countries’ procurement policies: it would be great to see the UK government commissioning and releasing GPL’d code, for example.
So, Romania, what’s the problem?

A while ago we also wrote about Bristol, which abandoned plans to use Free software in the public sector after Computacenter had gotten involved/invoked. Mark Ballard is stepping in another scandal as he explains that “Computacenter gags Bristol City Council over anti-open source ‘bias’”, further elaborating as follows:

Computacenter has prevented Bristol City Council from publishing details of a consulting project that has been overshadowed by allegations of anti-open source bias.

Bristol refused to release advice received from Computacenter concerning the choice of infrastructure to support the council’s 7,000 PCs and the allocation of more than £8m of public money.

Computer Weekly requested details about the pilot project under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act after MPs investigating the relationship between government and IT suppliers were told by a key expert witness that Computacenter had skewed its parameters to favour Microsoft, thereby undermining Bristol’s seven-year campaign to replace proprietary computing platforms with open source software.

But Stephen McNamara, head of legal services at Bristol City Council, said Computacenter had refused the authority permission to release the information.

Public authorities are required to reveal why particular choices that affect taxpayers were made. Yesterday we reminded readers of the poor ethics of Microsoft, including subversion of processes affecting national policies. It is stories like the above that further fuel more suspicion. █

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08.10.11

Windows — Just Like Microsoft — Does Not Play Nice With GNU/Linux

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 5:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A reminder of the sinister nature of Microsoft Corporation, the world’s biggest technology bully

Windows and Microsoft are not the same thing. One is a product and one is a company. But the latter controls the former and both are attacking Linux in different ways^*. For instance, Microsoft launches lawsuits against Linux, whereas Windows uses technical sabotage to marginalise GNU/Linux, as in the MBR case we recently covered yet again (Microsoft wipes out access to GNU/Linux or gives no access to it).

Check out the following new post titled “Dual-boot woes”:

My laptop is dual-boot with Windows 7 and Linux. It’s a fairly straightforward setup (with only a few twists to support Dell’s “Instant ON” mode, which turned out to be useless because I don’t use Exchange.) My drive has several partitions: a “Dell Utility” partition, Windows 7, a Dell “Instant ON” partition, and Linux. I rarely boot into Windows these days – but when I do, it’s usually to attend a conference call that requires Silverlight. I never boot the “Dell Utility”, or the “Instant ON”.

I’ve tried the trick of telling BitLocker to accept the new system configuration. This doesn’t fix my problem. I’m still prompted to type in the key to boot Windows.

I’ve also tried booting into Windows, suspending BitLocker, then re-enabling BitLocker. This also doesn’t work. I can suspend/re-enable just fine, but it doesn’t solve my problem.

Oddly, TPM keeps disabling itself, I don’t know why. Is this part of normal TPM behavior when it detects a change in the configuration? Or is this a hardware fault on my laptop?

Frustrated, I did some research, and found lots of (albeit old) sources that discuss troubles in dual-boot with Windows/BitLocker and Linux. The description that makes the most sense to me is from this article on technet.com: Building a dual boot system with Windows Vista BitLocker protection with TPM support, by Cyril (“Voy”) Voisin. In it, Voy says:

[...] Therefore if you replace Windows Vista’s MBR by a MBR that is not TPM aware, it won’t hash the boot sector before executing it and a register in the TPM won’t be populated. Same with the boot sector. Therefore Bitlocker will simply refuse to be enabled.

Since I put GRUB on my MBR, I understand this to mean that a register within TPM isn’t getting set correctly, which may explain why I always need to type in that key to boot Windows.

Interestingly, Homer’s list of Microsoft’s bad behaviour was brushed up a bit earlier this week. He posted the following summary about the “new Microsoft”:

Oh yes, I forgot, Vole "reinvented" itself as Snow White, and is no
longer the evil witch that did all those nasty things to DR-DOS and
OS/2 Warp back in medieval times.

Well apart from those pesky Barnes and Noble people that they tried
to extort money from under the cloak of NDA, using bogus patents of
dubious provenance and undeclared prior art, of course.

And all those Taiwanese manufacturers they threatened if they would
not ship Vole's "tile" phone instead of Android, and making "deals"
with anyone else too small or weak to stand up to them.

And building spying technology into Skype, and admitting they would
violate EU data protection laws by handing over Europeans' personal
data to American spy agencies.

And launching a "Screw Google" campaign, complete with orchestrated
FUD supplied by Burson-Marsteller.

And another FUD campaign against OpenOffice.org, where they grabbed
a handful of old case studies, and spun it into something that made
it look like there was some kind of uprising against OpenOffice. In
fact the only genuine point they made was that Microsoft Office has
compatibility issues with everything else, including older versions
of itself.

And their Best Buy anti-Linux propaganda training brief, where they
tout the virtues of "regular Windows updates" on the one hand, then
criticise Ubuntu's "hundreds of updates per month" on the other, in
an attempt to make Microsoft customers' month-long wait for updates
seem like some kind of "advantage", but GNU/Linux's daily updates a
disadvantage.

And their predatory acquisition of Nortel's patents, using a cartel
of Screw Googlers.

And their equally predatory (and clandestine) acquisition of Novell
using a cartel of vulture capitalists, primarily to get patents for
the purpose of attacking Free Software.

But yeah, apart from that, Microsoft is a totally reformed company.

Honest.

[...]

Yes, the list is endless. I could have mentioned the MSBBC and Nokia,
for example, or the fact that Skype will no-doubt be locked-in to the
Windows platform eventually, or the "community" of traitors Microsoft
built up around Mono, fooled certain people into being "pragmatists",
then unceremoniously dumped them, along with its own community of Net
developers. Now one of the key players, the founder of Gnome, is more
interested in running a proprietary software company than helping the
Gnome community through a difficult transition.

None of that is exactly ancient history either.

Let us remember that Microsoft is still quite the villain, not just by characterisation. █
___
^* Microsoft is hardly alone anymore because it joined forces with Apple. Apple not properly supporting ODF and instead helping OOXML, joining Microsoft’s patent cartels, etc. They share similar problems because GNU/Linux is gaining in many areas while both proprietary operating systems suffers security issues. “Black Hat Apple may have built its most secure Mac operating system yet,” says The Register, “but a prominent security consultancy is advising enterprise clients to steer clear of adopting large numbers of the machines.” Enterprises are said to be increasingly deploying GNU/Linux. The “security” (e.g. “malware”) FUD has therefore gained ground recently, especially against Android. Apple and Microsoft proponents both use this FUD, along with the “not open” FUD and the patent FUD.

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Apple is Killing Jobs, Killing Products

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 4:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Apple becomes a destructive company, not a productive company, as it seeks to ban products that exist in the market rather than compete fairly against them

APPLE is an abhorrent company with a powerful brand that it invested a lot to build. Apple is not truly an innovator in any area in particular; Apple merely assembles some bits it finds around itself and then integrates them. That’s what a lot of creation is really about.

Apple’s latest assault on Linux is a subject we wrote about early in the week. Basically, as part of the trend of “Using Patents to Stifle Competition”, “Apple Pulls a Fast One on Samsung” by having its Linux-powered product banned from Europe. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs’ close friend Larry Ellison carries on attacking those same products with patents and with copyrights, although Google seeks to throw out the latter weapon:

Google: Judge, Throw out the Copyright Claims of Oracle

This was my opinion from Day One. You cannot claim copyright on a language. Google’s developers write in Java and cross-compile to Dalvik, using Google’s stuff, not Oracle’s.

“Judge Slams Google for Inadequate Diligence” says one headline, but we mostly try to stick to Groklaw as a source. Microsoft has some lobbyists pressuring journalists to push its own cartel’s propaganda against Google, as recently confirmed in Germany (one of the leading anti-Android lobbyists is based in Germany).

“Microsoft has some lobbyists pressuring journalists to push its own cartel’s propaganda against Google, as recently confirmed in Germany (one of the leading anti-Android lobbyists is based in Germany).”Anyway, Apple has surely become an embargo company, whereas Microsoft mostly pressures for patent tax. “Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in EU,” heralds The Australian and “Apple gets Samsung Galaxy Tab banned in E.U. with moronic ruling,” says ZDNet. “No rest for the patent extortionist company,” wrote one GNU/Linux advocate in response to this. To quote: “This decision has nothing to do with patents or copyrights. It has nothing to do with the lawsuits swirling around Android. This particular case was just about the design, the look of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and that’s it. Now, I want you to click on this PDF copy of (European] Community design no. 000181607-000. Now, take a long hard look at it. What do you see?

“I’ll tell you what I see, it’s a freaking tablet. Yes, it looks like an iPad. But, it looks just as much like every tablet that’s ever existed or ever will exist. It’s a tablet.

“Where have I seen this before? Why, I remember! I recall my distant cousin Nichelle Nichols, that’s Lieutenant Uhura of Star Trek to you, “using” a tablet on the Enterprise back in 1966. I’m not the only one to have noticed the Star Trek/Apple iPad connection. Back when Apple introduced the iPad, actor Brent Spinner, aka Commander Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation, tweeted, “Didn’t Captain Picard used to play with a pad like that in his ready room? STAR TREK STRIKES AGAIN!!!” Yes, yes he did.”

“I didn’t think it could get any stupider than the US Patent Office and its idiot patents. But apparently Europe one-ups the United States in pure stupidity,” the advocate responds angrily. “Apparently a single judge in a regional court in Germany can issue an injunction against a corporation for the whole EU without allowing the corporation to defend themselves, or even informing them that the action is about to take place. And all this over a “rectangular shaped tablet with rounded corners.” There must be five million examples of prior art here. How much is Apple investing in the bribing of judges and those who issue bogus “community designs?”

“Apple can go to hell.”

Apple still pretends to be a technology company while it fact it’s a marketing mobster, just like Microsoft. And to make matters worse, the British press says that “Apple sues Motorola in Europe over Xoom tablet” (so it just wants to ban all the competition). Well, the British press claims that the “Apple injunction startles Samsung” and the Australian press has the headline “Tablet wars: Apple seeks to destroy rival Galaxy”. Slashdot summarises as follows: “In a stunning and painful decision for Samsung, Apple got a German court to issue a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab.”

Then they cite the pro-Microsoft lobbyist from Germany, the guy who attacks Android on a full-time basis (he is probably being briefed by Microsoft’s PR departments, which organise coordinated FUD), often by distorting or making up claims. Jan Wildeboer, who loves to expose this lobbyist, writes that “Apple stops Samsung from offering Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe”, noting:

German court grants injunction to Apple. German article here. Quite some more, but thy all paraphrase the original article that was sent out by dpa.

Apple, it is time to grow up and face competition the way you should. Not in courts. In the market. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a damn fine piece of hardware with a brilliant display, as far as I have seen.

Apple apologists love to portray Apple as a victim here, using cases like this one. But it’s a pathetic defence which helps show that advocacy of Apple has become like some kind of religion, where even atrocious, inexcusable, anticompetitive acts can someone be justified. As Google recently stated, Microsoft and Apple are banding togather to attack the Linux-based Android, assisted also by Oracle. As ECT puts it:

A top Google lawyer has publicly called out the company’s three biggest patent enemies — Oracle, Microsoft and Apple — accusing them of undertaking a “hostile, organized campaign against Android.” Hours later, though, Microsoft punched back with evidence that Google turned down Redmond’s offer to join together in securing patents Novell had put up for sale.

Apple is part of a patent cartel and it is a shameful aggressor. We need to explain to people why they should boycott Apple and expose it for the rogue operation it has become in recent years. █

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Latest Evidence That the USPTO is Morbidly Ill, Costing the Economy; Real Reform Likely

Posted in America, Patents at 4:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Patents drive up the prices of products and devalue the workers, especially those outside few monopolistic corporations; more people realise this and as the press gradually shows, there is room for a real reform annulling/voiding certain types of patents

THERE HAS BEEN a lot of backlash against patents recently (Techrights gave many examples), and not just software patents. ZDNet makes it seem like defeatism is the route to achieving something, at least based on their editors’ blog (Larry Dignan). Interestingly enough, some blogs in ZDNet recently started emulating — perhaps unintentionally — Techrights‘ “summary” format (same formatting, same structure therein). Here is the example of defeatism:

It’s fairly obvious that patents are the new tactical nukes in the technology industry. Companies want to grab patents largely to defend lawsuits than actually create anything. The companies with the most patents win.

Short of some cross industry disarmament policy—something that won’t happen—there will have to be some reform on the patent front.

It goes on to explaining that it’s a lost cause to fight back. Very disappointing, very ZDNet. Conversely, TechDirt comes out swinging with this post about patent trolls, which says ‘the court clearly noted the “non-practicing entity” part of the business in pointing out that, “As a non-practicing entity, Eon-Net was generally immune to counterclaims for patent infringement, antitrust, or unfair competition because it did not engage in business activities that would potentially give rise to those claims.”‘

TechDirt also has this new post about “Patent Troll To Settle For Nothing”:

Last summer we wrote about an absolutely ridiculous patent troll, named Gooseberry Natural Resources LLC, who holds a ridiculously broad patent (6,370,535) that it claimed covered the basic concept of generating a press release online, which it then used to sue a bunch of companies who had been in business since way before the patent was issued. At the beginning of this year, we noted that Gooseberry tried to expand the definition of what the patent covered, and sued a bunch of tech sites you probably read, including Fark, Reddit, Slashdot, TechCrunch and Digg. As we noted at the time, as with most patent trolls, Gooseberry was just a shell company, and the real owners of the patent were a secret. Tragically, even with the combined investigative power of those sites, no one was able to piece together who really owns that patent.

So progress is being made after all. “Google-Microsoft spat could be tiny step toward patent reform” says another headline:

The public row between Microsoft and Google continues, with both Microsoft and Google issuing new responses to one another over Google’s original accusation of patent bullying. The basic gist is this: Google says Microsoft’s invitation for Google to join the Novell patent consortium was a “false ‘gotcha!’” that would have put Android at a disadvantage, while Microsoft asserts that Google merely wanted to assert the same patents against others. Both parties say that the other has not directly addressed their core arguments.

Red Hat’s Jan Wildeboer speaks of a “rather radical plan to limit/channel patent trolls” and it is “Time To Really Deal With The Broken Software Patent System,” alleges Brad Feld in his latest good article. He explains: “There have been two dynamite stories on NPR recently – the first on The American Life titled When Patents Attack! and one on Planet Money titled The Patent War. If you have an interest in this area, the two are well worth listening to.

“In the past week, the discussion exploded starting with a post from Google titled When patents attack Android. The word “patent” shows up in 20 of the Techmeme River articles from the last week. Martin Fowler, a software developer, had a well thought out article titled SoftwarePatent. And they kept coming.”

The FSF is trying to get an Ogg version of the show and TechDirt cites the same broadcast:

Politicians, Innovation & The Paradox Of Job Creation

There’s been a ton of talk from politicians lately about the importance of “creating jobs.” This comes from both major political parties, of course. We’ve seen the Democrats jump heavily on the jobs agenda and the Republicans have been hyping up their ability to create jobs as well. A few months ago, This American Life produced a fantastic episode on the hilariousness of politicians claiming that they’re going to “create” jobs, with a focus on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (one of the few stories about him that has nothing to do with unions).

This whole debate over software patents carries on in various circles and a solution that may include abolishment of software patents should not be considered far-fetched. That’s what a lot of the public wants and increasingly demands too, as awareness is increased. █

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