Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Will Have You Sued for Not Hosting GNU/Linux on Azure (Paying Rents)

Air Soft Gun



Summary: Microsoft's anti-Linux strategy is a hybrid of "embrace" and "tax" (if not amicably then by force); critics are being neutralised by giving them suitcases of cash

BACK a decade (or more) ago we wrote about Novell and Microsoft most of the time. Around 2009 we turned more of our attention to patent trolls and dubious patents that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had granted. It wasn't before 2014 that many of these patents started to collapse in courts, owing to SCOTUS and 35 U.S.C. €§ 101.



In recent years Microsoft recognised that its patents lacked 'teeth' (most of those it is 'lending' to OIN), but it threatens Linux OEMs nonetheless, even this year. The Linux Foundation is paid to shut up about it, but that's another topic for another day*.

"As we explained before, in order for “Azure IP Advantage” to be sell-able (or become a selling point) Microsoft must ensure that many FOSS users get attacked by patent trolls.""Azure IP Advantage" isn't even mentioned by the Linux Foundation. Funny, isn't it? It's part of Microsoft's plan to hijack all of GNU/Linux, offering "IP peace of mind" (same stunt it has used since 2006 with Novell). We've been writing a lot about this since two years ago [1, 2], but not a single person in the corporate media even touches the subject. Instead they play along with Microsoft PR, such as the loads of nonsense coming out of Microsoft Build this week. We're putting rebuttals in our daily links (with many editorial comments under the "Openwashing" section or in Tux Machines [1, 2]). We've found only one single good article about this.

As we explained before, in order for "Azure IP Advantage" to be sell-able (or become a selling point) Microsoft must ensure that many FOSS users get attacked by patent trolls. Remember the lawsuits filed by Acacia (with former Microsoft chiefs) against Red Hat and others? We have extensive documentation and this timeline. In the article "A Deeper Look at Acacia" by Troll Tracker (Rick the unmasked Cisco patent expert) there was a report of "2 cases filed by Acacia subsidiary Soundview Technologies Inc., 1 in Chicago and 1 in Las Vegas, both by Niro Scavone." Another old article says: "In 2000, Soundview, an Acacia affiliate, sued Sony, Phillips and 17 other television manufacturers for violating its patent for V-chip technology best known for allowing parents to block certain programming from their home sets. More than a dozen major companies signed licenses for the technology before a federal court in Connecticut ruled in 2002 that TV makers didn’t violate Soundview’s patent. Acacia lost its appeal of the verdict in 2004."

We don't know if these lawsuits from Sound View Innovations are the same (or whether "Sound View Innovations, LLC" is a troll offshoot of "Soundview Technologies Inc."), but a few days ago Bart Eppenauer (ex-Microsoft) of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. (yes, Microsoft again, check its chief and founder) was happy to see this patent troll attacking FOSS, perhaps because it helps Microsoft sell Azure (it's their new business model, Azure IP Advantage) and helps bring more business (litigation) to his firm. The title of his new article is "Sound View Escalates Patent Assault on Open Source Software with New Wave of Lawsuits" and to quote this Microsoft veteran (he was very high level at Microsoft):

Sound View Innovations, an IP licensing company that is quickly becoming a prolific Non-Practicing Entity (NPE), has ramped up its litigation campaign by filing seven more lawsuits in 2019. Similar to the patent lawsuits that it initiated in 2017 against major players like Facebook, Hulu, Twitter and Fidelity, Sound View is again targeting widely used open source software including jQuery and Apache Hadoop. Sound View is also accusing ubiquitous streaming media protocols of patent infringement such as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and MPEG-DASH. In January 2019 Sound View filed lawsuits against several media companies such as AMC Networks, CBS Interactive and The CW Network. And in April 2019, Sound View diversified its industry targets by filing patent lawsuits against Walmart and Delta Airlines. With this latest round, Sound View has now filed 13 patent infringement lawsuits since starting its campaign against Facebook in February 2016.


Maybe if these companies had use Azure, Microsoft would indemnify them or tell this troll (apparently connected to Microsoft) not to sue. Microsoft has got ideas; they aren't pretty. The media is unwilling to write about this strategy, instead showing us with banners that say "Microsoft loves Linux" (remember Steve Ballmer's own words: "Advertisers, Advertisers, Advertisers"). Perfectly describes today's Linux Foundation (see footnote below). ____ * Consider the tale of three individuals. Person #1: in the 1980s he created a system which would be used by billions of people every minute of the day. Person #2: in the 1990s he created a kernel for the above person's system (1). Person #3: created a front group for the person above (2), selling access and branding rights to massive corporations. Question: Who's poorest and who's richest (~1,000,000 dollars/annum, tax exempted like the above corporations)?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
 
More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.