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Re: Microsoft's IP chief on TomTom, Linux and patents ..


From: Doctor Smith
Subject: Re: Microsoft's IP chief on TomTom, Linux and patents ..
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 13:34:47 -0500
User-agent: 40tude_Dialog/2.0.15.1

On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 08:52:29 -0500, amicus_curious wrote:

> "Doug Mentohl" <doug_mentohl@linuxmail.org> wrote in message 
> news:gogicp$985$1@news.datemas.de...
>>7 wrote:
>>
>>> This is the first shot in their patent war.
>>
>> Not really, more like SCO 11 ...
>>
>> "Assertions are year-long, or two years long. Maybe Microsoft wanted to 
>> buy TomTom, but they didn't want to sell. So they started asserting 
>> patents, hoping to encourage them to at least only license Microsoft 
>> operating systems. That didn't work, so they sued."
>>
>> "It is not beneath a monopolist to put all these pieces together and look 
>> to take advantage of a situation."
>>
>> http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4186728102.html
> 
> Well that is a rather biased view of the matter, to be sure.  If the 
> Microsoft patents read on the Tom-Tom product, they have the right to demand 
> a license.  They have licensed Tom-Tom competitors, it seems, so the most 
> likely story is that they just want their well-deserved income.

I agree with that and if Microsoft has infringed upon the GPL then the
owner of the program also has a right to compensation.
I'm a believer in people being paid for their works.

It remains to be seen how this plays out legally though.
Anyone can file a lawsuit and just about for any reason,winning and
collecting are a totally different matter.


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