Recent Features
| |||||||||||||
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open sourcePosted Feb 27, 2009 20:40 UTC (Fri) by berndp (guest, #52035)Parent article: 451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source
Yes, this is not the first shot against free software, Linux and the like.
It is just the next shot - and with a vastly bigger gun.
So the 451 group reviewed the claims and is sure that only added and severely changed parts of the kernel are (supposedly) infringing some software patents?
(Log in to post comments)
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Feb 27, 2009 23:53 UTC (Fri) by liljencrantz (guest, #28458) [Link]
I find this very unlikely. As far as I understand, the patents relate to how vfat handles both long and short filenames in the same filesystem. That functionality is part of theLinux vfat driver and not something TomTom has added.
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Feb 28, 2009 0:58 UTC (Sat) by berndp (guest, #52035) [Link]
Well, "451 Group" claims that the TomTom-Kernel is 'very different' from the vanilla Linux kernel - not /me.
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Feb 28, 2009 21:46 UTC (Sat) by liljencrantz (guest, #28458) [Link]
My interpretation of the article differs. The way I read it, the 451 group are only claiming that suing TomTom for their use of the kernel is very different from suing the open source community in general (however you would go about that).
I strongly suspect that the 451 group have not actually checked how much TomTom is customising the Linux kernel.
As to their conclusion, it seems unforgivably naive. If the lawsuit goes Microsofts way, we can be reasonably sure that they will go after more companies, and Canonical Red Hat and IBM won't be far away.
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Feb 28, 2009 21:53 UTC (Sat) by berndp (guest, #52035) [Link]
Well, you can't "sue the Linux community" (as such), you can only sue legal entities like a person or an organization.
And ACK. Confirming the claims in court will motivate many companies - smaller and larger - to either not use Linux (to avoid moving into MSFTs firing line) or pay to not get sued by buying "licenses".
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Feb 28, 2009 23:43 UTC (Sat) by mgb (guest, #3226) [Link]
> Well, you can't "sue the Linux community" (as such), you can only
> sue legal entities like a person or an organization.
One can sue a thing. Such lawsuits are called "in rem". For example, one might sue some chunks of Linux source code.
One can also sue Does. For example, one might sue Linus Torvalds and Does 1 through 10,000,000,000.
IANAL TINLA YMMV YADAYADA
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Mar 1, 2009 0:28 UTC (Sun) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
There are ten billion Linux users? Six billion humans and four billion
dead people, via GhostScript?
451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source Posted Mar 1, 2009 1:33 UTC (Sun) by mgb (guest, #3226) [Link]
I believe it's nearer seven billion humans now. One could sue them all if one had nothing better to do. (I guess that rules out most LWN readers.)
I have no idea of the number of suable fictitious persons (e.g. corporations) so I added a few billion Does to bring the count up to a nice round number. One traditionally specifies more Does than one thinks one will need.
|
|||||||||||||