Microsoft: free software is only good because they copied us 235 times
Microsoft has made specific claims that open source software violates at least 235 of it’s patents and it’s time to pay up. Obviously you have to take this seriously. By claiming a specific number of violations it could mean that Microsoft is ready to pursue this in court.
Most interesting to me was Microsoft’s assertion that “the one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more the 200 of Microsoft’s patents.” WOW…so only Microsoft has ever developed hight quality software and all those free software developers out there are too stupid to come up with something good on their own without copying Microsoft?
I find this all very sad. If Microsoft pursues this in court it will be a huge mistake. I hope it’s only a matter of Microsoft flexing their public muscles. They stand to lose much more in public opinion then it could ever gain in revenue.
It also stinks to high heaven of Microsoft running scared.
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paul
What a joke. M$ got in trouble for this type of stuff with Sun Microsystems. They indeed did copy code, verbatim, from Sun. When they got busted, they just quit!
Sure, look at how good M$ is, they’ve been making crappy operating system after crappy operating system for years. Linux runs circles around Windoze and is more secure and stable than Windoze will ever be.
Take a look at the browsers, too. Frankly, I’d prefer that no one ever copies M$ stuff!
Earl Moore
Hi Paul,
It’s true we all copy. It’s part of the natural learning, developing and improvement process. To take something that has been done and improve on it is very natural.
While I believe that companies and individuals should be compensated for their unique properties, I believe the current patent/copyright situation is out of hand and non-productive for the industry and the U.S. as a whole.
When you start seeing companies with a business plan of nothing but the collection of patent royalties, you know you’re in trouble.