The other day Microsoft announced that it had signed a deal with Amazon over licensing.
While we can see that the software giant could get its paws on some natty code we wondered what Amazon got out of the deal.
It appears that it got a promise that it would not be sued by Microsoft over the amount of Linux gear it used.
For a long time Microsoft has insisted that there were bits of Linux that used its patents. It has never said what, or tried to drag anyone to court.
However, buried in the small print of the press release about the deal was a set of technologies covered by the agreement including the Kindle, which employs open source software, and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers.
What this could mean is that Microsoft is popping around to some of the bigger Linux based technology outfits and saying: “Look you have some stuff we want to use, give us the rights to use it and we will not make you the first person we sue over Linux”.
As a strategy it would be pretty effective. It is done to an outfit which is big enough to lose a lot of cash if Microsoft sues it. It will most likely say “OK” because licencing its technology to Microsoft does not cost it anything and it buys piece of mind for its future Linux projects. Many still remember the brief moment when SCO had some companies believing that it owned Linux code and the amount of money it was extorting from them.
It also means that Microsoft can send a message to the software world. “We own enough of Linux to make it worth our while suing”, while at the same time not getting any negative publicity.
What surprises us is that the Open Source community has not kicked up more of a stink about it.
Jim Zemlin, of the Linux Foundation, wrote of the deal that most technology companies have invested heavily in patents and that a cross-licensing agreement is a non-news event. The fact that two entities with expensive stockpiles of outdated weapons felt the need to negotiate détente is not surprising.
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The agreement provides each company with access to the other’s patent portfolio and covers a broad range of products and technology, including coverage for Amazon’s popular e-reading device, Kindle™, which employs both open source and Amazon’s proprietary software components, and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers. Although specific terms of the agreement are confidential, Microsoft indicated that Amazon.com will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money under the agreement.
Software patents need to be abolished. They do more harm to the software industry than good, because they promote monopolistic situations, and prevent efficiency.
Could it be that some of these undisclosed agreements, such as the recent one with Amazon, are forcing us to pay tribute to a god many of us do not worship?
Frankly, I'm sick of this. How do we fix it?
Funny thing is that the big M may have learned this from countless of legal suing it experienced the past years. Now, they are using same tactics to its competitors? Wow, that doesn't sound nice. Who is next? Big G, watch out!
I work for a school district ... and they truly fear such things as open source because they equate open source with insecure. MS has done a masterful job of making the ignorant (such as our district administrators and IT team) feel as though open source will make all of school records opaque. The reality is that when organizations such as the National Labs (Sandia, Los Alamos et al) use LINUX it is precisely because LINUX is more secure than MS because you can easily make it that way.
Back to the question ... what do we do? Reformat the economy to be something less than profit at all cost. But,then hey, who the h ... am I to suggest that all is not well in consumer-land?
If they sue Google:
1 - They'll get locked out of the internet. Google owns search engine patents and advertising patents for now and I am sure they have more in the pipeline. Microsoft certainly dont want their 'Bing' to get nuked over patent lawsuits.
2 - Other companies that are strong partners of Google wont like it and fight back with their own portfolio.
3 - Likely a huge patent war would start and most companies will spend most of their time/money in court than actually doing business.
It causes havoc in the software industry, nothing else.