Well, as I had quipped earlier, my ruthless attempt to be the Microsoft of tech boycotts has continued thanks to the spineless acts of Linspire: so, please welcome BoycottLinspire.com to the fold.
In preparing to create a new EDU-Nix Dual Mode CD for the upcoming school year, I’ve been playing around with the latest generation of the Linux-Live scripts, and decided that our SueMe Linux distribution would be a fun diversion for testing with. What I want to do is include many of the Free Software projects that Microsoft has been disparaging with patent infringement allegations, along with as much anti-FUD information as possible.
One of the running jokes within SueMe will be "disclosing your balance sheet liabilities", and I want to maintain a table on the SueMe homepage that indicates exactly what vague and intimidating allegations Microsoft has made against various components of SueMe:
Included Software
Alleged MS Patents Infringed
Linux Kernel
42
K Desktop Environment (GUI)
65
OpenOffice.org
45
Email
15
Wine, Samba, Others
68
What we need are suggestions and submissions for articles and artwork in order to make SueMe the Anti-FUD distro, as well as any other suggestions or improvements that we can think of. There is a barely functional alpha version of the CD available now, and the sources and such are FTP-ing up to the site now, all in the download folder.
So, feel free to grab it all and hack away. And, if you want, feel Free to make a donation to the FSF or EFF in lieu of an interoperability tax. Hopefully, we can convince Microsoft to either abandon their FUD campaign or finally state with specificity the alleged infringements so that we may assess and address them on a case-by-case basis.
Linspire Inc. on June 14 will announce an agreement to license VoIP, Windows Media, and TrueType font technology from Microsoft for use in its Linux distribution. Additionally, the deal includes protection for Linspire customers against possible violations of Microsoft patents by Linux, and other cooperative measures.
So, Linspire folks, how much did Microsoft pay you to join the ‘protection racket’ club? A Linspire tag has been added to the site and Shane might register an aptly-named domain. Lindows has just joined hands with Windows.
Addendum (20/06/2007):
It is worth adding Groklaw’s find from last night.
Linspire Admits No Patents Licensed to MS
“This is the same conceptual structure of a patent covenant for end users as found in the Novell and Xandros deals, and the design principle is respect for all of the licenses that are at play, including the GPL [GNU General Public License],” Kaefer said. “These patent covenants are foundational elements that allow us all to move forward.”.
However, Linspire did not provide any of its patent rights to Microsoft under the deal, given that it held very few such rights, he said, noting that Microsoft would happily talk to the company about such a license if that situation changes.
[PJ: Of course the GPL remark is poppycock. Respect for the GPL is certainly not a noticeable component of any of these deals, except perhaps by its absence.] – Peter Galli, Devsource
Under the Patent Cooperation Agreement, Microsoft agreed to covenant with our customers not to assert its patents against our customers for their use of our products and services for which we receive revenue directly or indirectly, with certain exceptions, while we agreed to covenant with Microsoft’s customers not to assert our patents against Microsoft’s customers for their use of Microsoft products and services for which Microsoft receives revenue directly or indirectly, with certain exceptions. In addition, we and Microsoft each irrevocably released the other party, and its customers, from any liability for patent infringement arising prior to November 2, 2006, with certain exceptions. Both we and Microsoft have payment obligations under the Patent Cooperation Agreement. Microsoft made an up-front net balancing payment to us of $108 million, and we will make ongoing payments to Microsoft totaling a minimum of $40 million over the five year term of the agreement based on a percentage of our Open Platform Solutions and Open Enterprise Server revenues.
Everyone dust off their GPLv2 and turn to Section 7…
In a couple of new items — one is an interview and another is a column — Novell and Xandros get a little piece of people’s minds. The first one comes from no-one other than Alax Cox, who is one of the most promoninet Linux kernel hackers. He is also the man who recently gave somewhat of a nod of approval to GPLv3. Here is what he has to say about Novell:
Personally I think it’s [Novell's deal with Microsoft] a bad idea and that Novell are going to get stung by the GPLv3, and rightfully so. The license is designed to keep the software free, if it fails to do this then it needs fixing, so GPLv3 hopefully will fix this flaw.
Novell has nobody to blame by itself. It should have known what it was getting into. The management entered an absurd partnership and sealed an even more absurd deal.
It’s amusing to note that a man [Xandros CEO] becomes a recognisable public figure only after he’s signed a deal that could well mean the demise of his company. Strange indeed are the ways of mega-corporations.
[...]
Incredibly, a patent cross-licensing deal was signed without once discussing patents. Now how could anyone imagine that people would talk about patents when they were signing such a deal? Silly me!
A new blog post about the “Microsoft Linux distribution” has caught our attention. However sensationalist it may be, therein lies another explanation of Microsoft’s Grand Plan, which is not only to divide, to accuse, and to spread fear. It is also about making money from your competitor’s product. This video on antitrust has an excellent example of this strategy, taken from early 20th century history.
The New Distro is Microsoft
These companies are now paying Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft is paying them as well…but the kicker is this: These companies are paying Microsoft for Linux.
The deals must stop and the way to achieve this is to give a clear prior warning to distributors who are led into fear and confusion. We must not see companies like Linspire and Mandrakesoft take a lump money and run. If companies ever receive money for admission of guilt which they subsequently deny (see below), then this must be highlighted. In retrospect (some time in the future, if ever), attempts at market manipulation through payoffs to ‘close down shop’ can be highlighted.
And please, Novell and Xandros, don’t whine that Microsoft pulled a fast one on you, and reiterate that open source is clean. No one needed you to tell them that. Innocent until proven guilty in this country. And especially in light of all the evidence that points against such claims.
Judging by this voice, which is not the exception, the open source community (and yes, even the commercial one, i.e. industry) still appears to be dennouncing the actions of Novell and Xandros. Never think the opposite, no matter what Novell tells you.
Mark Shuttleworth has been a stubborn opposer to Microsoft’s actions ever since the Novell deal had been struck. In a new interview with the South African press, Mr. Shuttleworth had the following words to add:
[Mark:] Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won’t say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: “It’s an unsafe neighbourhood, why don’t you pay me 20 bucks and I’ll make sure you’re okay,” that’s illegal. It’s racketeering. What Microsoft is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It’s a great company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a well considered position.
[Question:] So you wouldn’t do a deal?
[Mark:] No, absolutely not. But the time will come when the folks at Microsoft who have a clear vision for the company as a participant in this community, rather than as a hostile antagonist, will win.
We recently said that Mr. Shuttleworth was wrong on patent threats and we stick with this stance, even though the interview suggests that he has not changed his mind. The Xandros and LG deals have apparently led to no reconsideration on his part.
It is also him who said that Microsoft would never take this to court. It is also him who ‘trolled’ the Opensuse mailing (depending on how you look at it). There was a lot more that he said at the time, but all in all, he consistently defends Free software, even if it means liaising with the so-called ‘purists’. It remains highly unlikely (if not altogether impossible) that Canonical will give in to Microsoft’s pressure. The same can be said about Red Hat. These two companies hold the large majority of Linux users on the desktop and the server, respectively. They are doing well financially, unlike Xandros, for example, which according to one source, said it “needed the money”. Deals with feeble distributors can never intimidate the core.
Yesterday we saw another attempt to instill and spread fear throughout the embedded Linux industry. This happens to be an industry where Linux is expected to become very dominant and even reign (as seen in HPC), if it does not already approach that status. Let us remember that, among other factors, Microsoft signed a deal with companies such as Samsung and LG in order to scare developers (and mind you, there was no explicit disclosure of patent numbers, let alone a number of patents).
Fortunately, the world which revolves around embedded Linux yawns and continues to ignore the FUD. It’s safe to say this based on a recent survey. The polling process took place around the time other such deals were made.
As a result, patent worries are down among Linux users over the last three years. LinuxDevices.com’s latest reader survey, published earlier this month, suggested that only about 22 percent of embedded Linux developers take patent concerns seriously, down from 33 percent two years ago.
No only is this fear unfounded, but it also appears to be on a sharp decline. Linux continues to thrive in the mobile-, embedded-, and devices-oriented area. Only yesterday, for instance, the following three announcements were made:
“Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded edition is expected to deliver fast boot and resume times, and reside in a small memory and disk footprint,” Canonical said in a statement.
These are just 3 among several new Linux devices/ports that are being introduced in a single day. LinuxDevices.com boasts about half a dozen a day.
The LG deal was probably irrelevant in the sense that it does not appear to scare anybody. Developers move on while media chooses a sensationalist tone to create the illusion that a difference was made.
Will we be seeing more Linux devices than ever before? You bet. Here’s a new video of one (Palm Foleo).
Microsoft’s business strategy is the equivalent of “don’t buy his products or something bad will happen — but we won’t tell you what.” In other words, it shows less sophistication than the average playground ruse. Nevertheless, it was enough for Novell — responsible for the popular Suse distribution of Linux — to enter last year into a mutual covenant not to sue over patent infringements.
Novell, quite sadly, was either a victim of fear, selfishness, greed, or a combination thereof. Allow me to explain. Those who are supposed to fear are not just Linux vendors, but also companies that use Linux. Selfishly enough, by Novell’s own admission, Novell decided to enter the fear mongering club and cash in on uncertainty they themselves created, along with Microsoft. This means that not genuine fear of lawsuits was Novell’s reason to enter the deal; rather, it was the ability to exploit fear.
Greed relates to the monetary award they received (over $0.3 billion). Think of it as a compensation plan sponsored by Microsoft’s anti-Linux agenda. That in its own right justifies resentment that makes Groklaw’s headline “Novell sells out” seem very accurate. LXer has more to say about the recent series of deals, which are intended to achieve nothing but to create uncertainty in the market.
What does Microsoft get out of the deals? They get to shamelessly accuse our community of wrongdoing without ever having to prove it in court. They get to advertise that they are working to enforce their patents – you know, the ones that should never have been granted to begin with. They will likely even use the deals to claim all manner of “victories” over our community.
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