LONG [News Digest] Mark Kent Linux News Digest for the 24hrs preceding 12-07-09
Mark Kent
* Controlled Sharing Can Help Musicians, Performers
* Study Shows Patents Make Science and Technology Worse
* G8 Uses Patents to Suppress Populations
* In Re Bilski Kills Software Patent
* Microsoft (Co)Founder Collaborates with World's Biggest Patent
Troll on Life Blackmail
* [Rival] Microsoft Drone SCO Gets Sued
* [Rival] Microsoft Expected to Use Politicians and AstroTurfers
Against Google's Linux
* [Rival] Microsoft Shill Jonathan Zuck Exposed, Denounced, Retreats
* [Rival] Microsoft Folks Keep Promoting Mono, FSF Says No
* [Rival] Microsoft Programmes Keep Dropping Like (Butter)Flies
* [Rival] New National Moves to ODF and Ogg Vorbis
* [Rival] Beyond Hype of Apple Lie Defective Products
* [Rival] Microsoft Windows Still Kills British Patients
From the following esteemed reporters:
* Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
This is a digest of the previous 24 hours (GMT day) of [News] postings in
comp.os.linux.advocacy. If you have any comments, suggestions or remarks,
please reply to this message and I will take account of all that I can.
Try the faq at: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/
for more information about cola.
The digest is now presented in the UTF-8 character-set, in order to
improve legibility for readers in all parts of the world.
Just like other public, unmoderated discussion fora, cola has
its share of disruptive posters. This blog has been created by
a concerned cola netizen to assist newcomers in identifying them:
http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/
In order to find the last week's digests, try:
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&num=10&q=group%3Acomp.os.linux.advocacy+insubject%3Alinux+insubject%3Anews+insubject%3Adigest+author%3Amark.kent%40demon.co.uk&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=w&safe=off&qt_s=Search
Alternatively, you can start at the first one, posted 3/Sep/06, and
work fowards:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/browse_thread/thread/204520deb472e5ef/fa8c1f5e12433243?&hl=en#fa8c1f5e12433243
For information regarding JAIN SLEE, try this thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/browse_thread/thread/db9925f8d4305760/d36f7eeda94fc6ac?lnk=st&q=mark+kent+jain+slee#d36f7eeda94fc6ac
I very much hope that you find this digest useful.
You can email me at: echo ma...@NOSPAM.ellandroad.demon.co.uk, removing
the obvious bit.
Happy reading, Mark Kent, Digest Editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message-ID: <3487320.Y...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] Controlled Sharing Can Help Musicians, Performers
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:12:46 +0000
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Cheap Trick: More Afraid Of Being Ignored Than Ripped Off
,----[ Quote ]
| This is just another way of saying that "obscurity is a bigger fear than
| piracy." And while such things are usually applied to new, up-and-coming
| artists, it's nice to see that more well known artists recognise the same
| formula applies to them, as well.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090707/0245355467.shtml
Trent Reznor Explains What A Musician Needs To Do To Be Successful These Days
,----[ Quote ]
| Great stuff, as usual, and certainly reinforces the point: it's certainly
| hard work, but it is doable. If you're unknown, use this process to get
| known. Once you're known, you can start to implement all different elements
| of the business model, using the music to make scarce goods much more
| valuable and start earning that way.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090709/1114395500.shtml
Jammie Thomas will appeal, lawyer says
,----[ Quote ]
| It's official: Jammie Thomas-Rasset intends to appeal her case, one of her
| lawyers told CNET News on Wednesday.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10277701-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Recent:
Media Analyst Calls Hulu 'Anti-American' For Providing Free Content
,----[ Quote ]
| We see all sorts of confused analysis when it comes to how "free" works in
| economics -- which goes back to our assertion that the human brain tends to
| run into a mental block when it encounters a zero and rather than recognise
| the rest of the economic equation, it just pops out an error message. That's
| the only explanation I can find for the so-called analysis by Media Metrics'
| Laura Martin of how Hulu is "anti-consumer, anti-media employees, and even
| anti-America" and supposedly putting $300 billion worth of market value "at
| risk" (thanks Ben for sending this in).
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090615/1148005239.shtml
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Message-Id: <1664837.n...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] Study Shows Patents Make Science and Technology Worse
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:14:40 +0000
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Patents Don't Promote Innovation: Study
,----[ Quote ]
| It's extraordinary how the myth that patents somehow promote innovation is
| still propagated and widely accepted; and yet there is practically *no*
| empirical evidence that it's true. All the studies that have looked at this
| area rigorously come to quite a different conclusion.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/07/patents-dont-promote-innovation-study.html
Linux community codes around Microsoft's FAT patents
,----[ Quote ]
| In early 2009, open-source luminary Larry Augustin urged the Linux community
| to "get the FAT out." While Tridgell's approach doesn't quite do this, it
| does appear to obviate Microsoft's patent claims.
|
| This should make Linux users happy. Whether it will make Microsoft happy to
| see how trivial it is to code around its patent claims remains to be seen.
| That's the problem with launching nuclear marketing attacks against the legal
| integrity of open-source code: given enough eyeballs, all patent claims are
| shallow.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10278003-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Can FAT patch avoid Microsoft lawsuits?
,----[ Quote ]
| Andrew Tridgell has published a patch that could make the Linux
| implementation of the FAT filesystem impervious to Microsoft patent claims of
| the kind that forced a settlement from TomTom. The patch alters the VFAT code
| so that it does not generate both short and long filenames, says Tridgell.
`----
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4980952387.html?kc=rss
Recent:
The True Begetter of Innovation is Openness
,----[ Quote ]
| This work basically shows that recent attempts to introduce intellectual
| monopolies into science in order to "promote innovation" have actually been
| counter-productive.
|
| [...]
|
| In this context at least, it's openness that leads to more innovation, not
| its polar opposite.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/02/true-begetter-of-innovation-is-openness.html
Patents versus patenting: implications of intellectual property protection for
biological research
,----[ Quote ]
| Abstract
|
| A new survey shows scientists consider the proliferation of intellectual
| property protection to have a strongly negative effect on research.
|
| Introduction
|
| A system of intellectual property (IP) rights can encourage inventions by
| scientists and help promote the transformation of research achievements into
| marketed products. But associated restrictions on access can reduce
| utilisation of inventions by other scientists. How is this trade-off working
| out in practice?
`----
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n1/full/nbt0109-36.html
Patent Trolls Are a Symptom of Deeper Problems
,----[ Quote ]
| The reason patent trolling is so profitable is that over the last quarter
| century the courts have expanded patenting into new areas like software and
| business methods, and dramatically lowered the bar for receiving a patent. As
| a result, patents that would have been rejected 30 years ago (like this
| ridiculous patent on removing white space from database entries, which IBM
| received earlier this month) are now routinely approved by the Patent Office.
| As a result, patent trolls are able to buy up low-quality patents by the
| truckload. Even though the vast majority of the patents won’t survive legal
| challenges, defendants can’t take the chance that one of them might survive
| and force the firm into a 8- or 9-figure settlement.
|
| Patent trolls make good poster children for the patent system’s dysfunctions,
| but focusing too much on them ignores the fact that abusing the patent system
| is a game played by large companies as well. For example, Verizon managed to
| extort tens of millions of dollars from Vonage to settle a lawsuit over an
| absurdly broad Internet telephony patent. Verizon, of course, isn’t a “patent
| troll,” but a competitor interested in hobbling an up-and-coming competitor.
| Any patent reform needs to address the Verizons of the world too, not just
| the NTPs.
`----
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/01/17/patent-trolls-are-a-symptom-of-deeper-problems/
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Message-ID: <2502123.Y...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] G8 Uses Patents to Suppress Populations
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:16:12 +0000
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G8 on Intellectual Monopolies: Not so Great
,----[ Quote ]
| Alongside the main show of the G8 circus, there are a number of supporting
| acts that run in parallel with it. One of these is the “G8 Intellectual
| Property Experts Group” (IPEG).
|
| [...]
|
| As you might expect, IPEG gets terribly excited by the Anti Counterfeiting
| Trade Agreement (ACTA), but there's something else it is also in favour of,
| that is new to me...
|
| [...]
|
| This kind of confusion is typical of a document that has a distinct air of
| desperation about it. It suggests that the fans of intellectual monopolies
| are beginning to flail around for a handhold – any handhold – in an attempt
| to defy the pull of history, and to lock down knowledge through the use of
| overlong copyright and overbroad patents while they can. It is a further sign
| of increasing irrelevance of the G8 meeting as power begins to shift to the
| developing world, which has quite different ideas and priorities when it
| comes to enforcing Western monopolies on their internal markets.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2345&blogid=14
Feel the leap:
Toyota Builds Thicket of Patents Around Hybrid To Block Competitors
,----[ Quote ]
| The Obama administration's tough new fuel-efficiency standards could pose
| problems for some car makers, but Toyota Motor Corp. is hoping to benefit.
|
| The Japanese company is betting the rules will give an advantage to its
| expanding lineup of hybrid vehicles, and it also aims to boost revenue by
| licensing to other car makers the patents that protect its fuel-saving
| technologies.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124640553503576637.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Recent:
Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates
Say
,----[ Quote ]
| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
`----
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129
Economist Critic of Software Patents gets Nobel Prize
,----[ Quote ]
| The FFII congratulates Eric S. Maskin, an economist who has long criticised
| the patenting of software, for receiving the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics.
| Prof. Maskin and two colleagues receive the Prize for research into the
| optimal design of economic mechanisms. By applying his theory to the IT
| sector, Maskin demonstrated "that in such a dynamic industry, patent
| protection may reduce overall innovation and welfare."
`----
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Economist_Critic_of_Software_Patents_gets_Nobel_Prize
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Message-Id: <2128535.W...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] In Re Bilski Kills Software Patent
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:18:39 +0000
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Judge Invalidates Software Patent, Citing Bilski
,----[ Quote ]
| "US District Court Judge Andrew Gilford (Central District of California)
| granted a summary judgment motion in DealerTrack v. Huber et al., finding
| DealerTrack's patent (US 7,181,427) — for an automated credit application
| processing system — invalid due to the recent In re Bilski court decision
| that requires a patent to either involve 'transformation' or 'a specific
| machine.' According to Judge Gilford's ruling, DealerTrack 'appears to
| concede that the claims of the '427 Patent do not meet the "transformation"
| prong of the Bilski test.' He then applied the 'specific machine' test and
| noted that, post-Bilski the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences has
| ruled several times that 'claims reciting the use of general purpose
| processors or computers do not satisfy the [Bilski] test.' Judge Gilford
| analyses the claims of the '427 patent, notes that they state that
| the 'machine' involved could be a 'dumb terminal' and a 'personal computer,'
| and then concludes: 'None of the claims of the '427 Patent require the use of
| a "particular machine," and the patent is thus invalid under Bilski.'
| DealerTrack apparently plans to appeal the ruling. Interesting times ahead."
`----
Recent:
Court to rule on “methods” patents
,----[ Quote ]
| In the ruling, the Court decided unanimously that the Sixth Circuit Court had
| improperly “derailed” an Ohio state court’s consideration of a claim by a
| death row inmate that he is mentally retarded, and thus cannot be executed.
| The Circuit Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in Bobby v. Bies
| (08-598), was wrong in issuing a habeas ruling that inmate Michael Bies’
| retardation had already been established. Bies must pursue that claim in a
| pending state court case, the Justices concluded.
|
| In an unsigned (”per curiam”) opinion, the Court by a 7-2 vote overturned a
| $5 million jury verdict in favour of a railroad employee who had work-related
| brain damage and lung diseases after prolonged exposure to a toxic chemical
| in the workplace. The Court found that the jury should have been instructed
| on what the worker must prove to show a genuine fear that he would someday
| develop cancer. The ruling came in CSX Transportation v. Hensley (08-1034).
| Justices Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens dissented.
`----
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-to-rule-on-patent-dispute/
Bilski case going to the U.S. Supreme Court
http://lwn.net/Articles/335442/
Lessons From Software For Patents, vs. Solving the Software Patent Problem
,----[ Quote ]
| Software patents may be going the way of network neutrality: an arcane policy
| problem once the preserve of a small circle of wonks is becoming a
| politicised slanging match. In both cases an esoteric but important research
| question has become a point of leverage for certain interest groups. In both
| cases the subject (“network neutrality”, “software patents”) is at best
| poorly defined, typically has multiple possible meanings, and at worst is so
| vague as to be useless. And in both cases, the poster child is the small-time
| innovator, while the sugar daddy is a big money player minimising costs (e.g.
| content providers who love net neutrality, and VCs who hate software
| patents).
`----
http://deepfreeze9.blogspot.com/2009/03/lessons-from-software-for-patents-vs.html
Editorial: High tech needs patent reform
,----[ Quote ]
| It isn't often that you see heavyweights in the tech world duking it out in a
| high-stakes match, with Congress as the referee. It's happening today over
| proposed reforms in patent law, which pits the software and information
| technology giants against their counterparts in biotech. The issues are as
| fascinating as they are thorny — and while each side paints the choices as
| black and white, there's enough gray here to cover a fleet of battleships.
|
| [...]
|
| One reform everyone agrees on is the need to expedite patent applications.
| The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has just over 5,000 underpaid and
| overworked examiners to review more than 400,000 new applications each year.
| It would take them two years just to catch up on the current backlog if no
| new applications arrived. This, too, is stifling innovation. The office needs
| the money for more staff.
`----
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_12076041?nclick_check=1
Sun Loses Bid To Invalidate Patents With Bilski Test
,----[ Quote ]
| A federal judge has shot down an attempt by Sun Microsystems Inc. to use the
| Bilski test to invalidate two patents for product configuration software held
| by Versata Software Inc. that Sun is accused of infringing.
`----
http://ip.law360.com/registrations/user_registration?article_id=94802&concurrency_check=false
Patentable Subject Matter Redux: Bilski 2009
,----[ Quote ]
| In February 2009, the Board of Patent Appeals (BPAI) issued nine decisions
| that touched on Bilski and patentable subject matter under Section 101 of the
| Patent Act. In eight of the cases, the BPAI either affirmed an examiner's
| Section 101 rejection (five cases) or entered a new ground of rejection under
| Section 101 (three cases). In the remaining case, the BPAI remanded - asking
| the examiner to consider wether the claims were patentable under Section 101.
| All nine cases were related to software or electronics type applications.
`----
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/03/patentable-subject-matter-redux-bilski-2009.html
FCC Opens ATSC Patent Costs Proceedings
,----[ Quote ]
| The CUT-FATT petition said that American consumers pay $20 to $30 per
| television receiver for intellectual property rights that would cost about $1
| elsewhere.
`----
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/75374
Two Quick Words About Microsoft v. TomTom: Think Bilski
,----[ Quote ]
| I'll restrict myself for now to two quick words:
|
| Think Bilski
|
| Are Microsoft's FAT patents *hardware* patents? No? Then what makes you
| assume they are valid in the post-Bilski world? Don't even get me started on
| obviousness. Let alone who really "invented" that stuff.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090226070041454
Why I don’t sign NDAs. . .
,----[ Quote ]
| I call them the 'on the Internet' patents. You can patent anything by adding
| the suffix - 'on the internet'.
`----
http://www.texasstartupblog.com/2009/01/30/why-i-dont-sign-ndas/
Software Patents Are Bogus
,----[ Quote ]
| Scroll down to page 6 and take a look at the title of the patent
| there: “Vehicle Computer System with Wireless Internet Connectivity.”
|
| No joke. Microsoft has patented being able to have a wi-fi capable computer
| in your car.
|
| Let me repeat: wi-fi + computer + car = patent infringement.
|
| This illustrates pretty well why software patents are pretty clearly bogus —
| how can patent have a wireless computer in a car? How is that unique idea?
`----
http://listento.jaketolbert.com/computer/software-patents-are-bogus/
Bilski Petitions the Supreme Court to Decide Issues of Patentable Subject
Matter
,----[ Quote ]
| In Bilski, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit applied
| the “machine-or-transformation test” as the only test to be used in
| determining whether a claimed process is eligible for patenting under § 101.
| The decision holds that a claimed process either (1) be tied to a particular
| machine or apparatus or (2) transform a particular article into a different
| state or thing.
|
| Bilski’s claimed method of hedging the risk of bad weather through
| commodities trading had been rejected by the USPTO as lacking patentable
| subject matter. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed – finding that the
| method failed the machine-or-transformation test.
`----
Is it Patentable?
,----[ Quote ]
| Two months ago, in In re Bilski, the Federal Circuit rejected the notion that
| anything that produces a "useful, concrete, and tangible result" is
| potentially patentable. Instead, to be patent-eligible, an idea must be "tied
| to a particular machine or apparatus," or it must "transform a particular
| article into a different state or thing." (To qualify for a patent, it also
| has to meet various other requirements, such as being novel.)
|
| As to transformation, the court noted that not just any transformation will
| do. The transformation "must be central to the purpose of the claimed
| process," and the "articles" transformed must either be "physical objects or
| substances" or "representative of physical objects or substances."
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/12/is-it-patentable
The post-Bilski era begins
,----[ Quote ]
| The In re Bilski (545 F.3d 943 [Fed. Cir. 2008]; here’s a PDF of the
| decision) court decision placed significant new limits on so-called “process”
| or “business method” patents, which possible implications for many software
| patents.
`----
http://bfwa.com/2008/12/19/the-post-bilski-era-begins/
The Post-Bilski Era Gets Underway
,----[ Quote ]
| A set of pharmaceutical process patents for 'evaluating and improving the
| safety of immunisation schedules' (Classen v. Biogen et al.; see US Patents
| 6,420,139; 6,638,379; 5,728,385; 5,723,283) were held to be invalid due to
| unpatentability. The decision was appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the
| Federal Circuit, but was upheld with a terse citation to In re Bilski (which
| decision we discussed here).
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/20/1811246
Applying Bilski to Biotechnology and the Life Sciences
,----[ Quote ]
| For example, although Bilski states that a process claim is "surely"
| patent-eligible under section 101 if it complies with the
| machine-transformation test, this cannot be literally correct with respect to
| a naturally occurring biological process. Photosynthesis transforms carbon
| dioxide and water into sugar, and in Bilski the Court specifically points to
| chemical reactions as the sort of physical transformation that will render a
| process patentable, but a claim directed to photosynthesis would clearly
| violate Supreme Court precedent which bars the patenting of natural
| phenomena.
`----
http://lawbites.com/applying-bilski-to-biotechnology-and-the-life-sciences/
Vaccination
http://www.patenthawk.com/blog/2008/12/vaccination.html
Bilski ruling: a victory on the path to ending software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| As opinions form about the extent to which the Court ruling impacts the
| patenting of software, one thing is clear. The State Street ruling that in
| 1998 opened the flood gates to the patenting of business methods and software
| has been gutted, if not technically overturned.
`----
http://www.fsf.org/news/esp-bilski
Latha Jishnu: Bilski and the madness of methods
,----[ Quote ]
| Why, you may well ask, is the denial of patent to Bernie Bilski for a method
| of managing weather-related risk in commodities making the software open
| source community jump up in joy? A particularly happy lot is the lobby
| campaigning against software patents in India.
`----
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=339903
Patent decision: New Roadblock to Software/Tech Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| On October 30th a leading U.S. federal court decided the major case of In re
| Bernard L. Bilski. This 100+ page court case could have a major impact on
| software and technology companies, especially those trying to obtain or
| enforce software patents in the U.S.
`----
http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=6395
United States: Long-Awaited “Bilski” Decision Restricts Patentability Of
Software, Business Methods
,----[ Quote ]
| The Bilski decision is significant because it may affect a patentee's ability
| to enforce existing patents, the prospects for pending patent applications
| and the decision whether to file new patent applications directed to
| so-called "business methods" and software-related innovations....
`----
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=69582
Bilski - What It Means, Part 4 - The Microsoft Brief
,----[ Quote ]
| The Microsoft brief was filed along with Dell and Symantec, and it's an
| attempt to get the court to deny the Bilski claims while at the same time
| trying to keep the court from going all the way and deciding software should
| not be patentable. There are some logic bumps along the way, as you will see.
| The court diverged from Microsoft's argument about three-quarters of the way
| through, and it didn't directly address software patents, except in one
| footnote, mainly because Bilski wasn't about software. So it left unaddressed
| Microsoft's chief argument about why software should patentable, namely
| because of what it does to a computer. There will be future cases, though,
| that certainly will be on this point, so it seems a good time to point out
| everything we can think of to help the court understand what's wrong with the
| Microsoft-Dell-Symantec position. I'll start, but jump in any time. You'll
| see more than I will, since so many of you are programmers.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20081112034806294
USPTO does not like killing business method patents?
,----[ Quote ]
| The New York Times has an article about the recent Bilski decision. The USPTO
| has requested a change in the title of the article.
|
| [....]
|
| If Mrs Jennifer Rankin Byrne could point out where she sees the term computer
| in the Bilski decision, that would help to back her statement.
`----
http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/forum/t-101849/uspto-does-not-like-killing-business-method-patents
Reactions to the Bilski decision begin to roll in
,----[ Quote ]
| Not being a US patent attorney and not possessing any expertise in US patent
| law, I am not in a position to comment on the CAFC’s Bilski decision handed
| down yesterday. However, I do know a few people who are, so I have been in
| touch with them to get their reactions. Below is what I have had so far. I
| will continue to add to these until the beginning of next week (3rd/4th
| November will be the cut-off).
`----
http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=c0d00676-2989-400a-824b-82dfc57a09b9
In regards to In re Bilski
,----[ Quote ]
| On the key question of when information becomes a machine, the ruling does
| provide some clues: “First, [...] the use of a specific machine or
| transformation of an article must impose meaningful limits on the claim's
| scope to impart patent-eligibility. [...] Second, the involvement of the
| machine or transformation in the claimed process must not merely be
| insignificant extra-solution activity.” For more on extra-solution activity,
| have a look at my law review article (PDF) that focuses heavily on the idea.
`----
http://ben.klemens.org/blog/arch/00000009.htm
US court narrows scope for business method patents
,----[ Quote ]
| "While looking for 'a useful, concrete and tangible result' may in many
| instances provide useful indications of whether a claim is drawn to a
| fundamental principle or a practical application of such a principle, that
| inquiry is insufficient to determine whether a claim is patent-eligible," it
| said.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/03/us_court_business_patents/
Bilski: Almost the Big One
,----[ Quote ]
| The big question is what effect, if any, this decision will have on the
| current referral of a “point of law” concerning software patents by the
| President of the European Patent Office (EPO) to the EPO “Enlarged Board of
| Appeal”, something I wrote about earlier this week. It would be ironic if, at
| a time when the US courts begin to move away from patenting software “as
| such”, the EPO started allowing precisely that through a relaxation of its
| own rules.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=1452
So are software patents dead or not?
,----[ Quote ]
| My opinion is that it's going to get harder and harder to patent anything. Of
| course there will be a big push back from business, so this won't happen over
| night, but I think the concept of patents will eventually disappear entirely.
`----
http://aplawrence.com/Opinion/business-method.html
US Court Throws Out Most Software Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The IT Examiner also observes that "Microsoft has a problem" and that "Much
| of the patent portfolio of some of the world's biggest software companies has
| become worthless overnight, thanks to a ruling yesterday by the US patent
| court."
`----
http://blog.entchev.com/2008/10/31/us-court-throws-out-most-software-patents.aspx?ref=rss
Court Reshapes Patent Reform Debate
,----[ Quote ]
| In a ruling with huge implications for the technology sector, the U.S. Court
| of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Oct. 30 pure software or business
| method patents that are neither tied to a specific machine nor change
| something into a different state are not patentable.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Court-Reshapes-Patent-Reform-Debate/
In Huge Shift, Court Ruling Effectively Denies Software-Only Patent Rights
,----[ Quote ]
| The case originally centered on a patent for "a method of managing the risk
| of bad weather through commodities trading"—which falls more under
| the "business process" bucket, but the same ruling effectively makes
| patenting a specific software process impossible. The previous ruling allowed
| such patents, so long as computers were involved and the process produced
| a "useful, concrete, and tangible result." This ruling rejects that premise,
| favoring instead an older test that only allows patents for things involving
| an actual machine or a transformation of a tangible object into a different
| state.
`----
http://gizmodo.com/5072858/in-huge-shift-court-ruling-effectively-denies-software+only-patent-rights
Professor Collins: In re Bilski: Tangibility Gone “Meta”
,----[ Quote ]
| Although they are both legitimate questions, this short comment addresses
| neither whether there is a legitimate statutory basis for this test nor
| whether Supreme Court precedent should be interpreted so as to mandate (or
| even support) this test. Rather, it focuses solely on the criteria that the
| court offers to draw the line between patentable and unpatentable
| transformations. The Federal Circuit has added a new twist to the tangibility
| test that has for many years played a role in determining patent-eligibility:
| the tangibility test has gone "meta." The tangibility of the formal data that
| is actually transformed by a method of processing information is not relevant
| to patent-eligibility, but the tangibility of the things that the data is
| about—the tangibility of the informational content of the data or the things
| to which the data refers—now appears to be dispositive.
`----
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/11/professor-colli.html
Bilski: What It Means, Part 1 -- Red Hat on What It Means for FOSS
,----[ Quote ]
| means to everyone: You can't get patents any more on a pure mental process.
| You can no longer patent a process that you can think through all in your
| mind. In other words, abstract ideas are not patentable. There has to be
| either a particular machine or a transformation in the process. So
| pure "ideas" or "mental processes" are over. That means most business methods
| patents are no longer valid because they are outside the parameters of what
| is eligible for patenting. In simple terms, it means this:
|
| The End for the stupidest of the stupid patents.
|
| Yay! It means that the tide is turning. There could still be an appeal of
| Bilski, and even without one, there are ways to chip away at this decision's
| new standard for patentability, to try to get over the new turnstile, so to
| speak, and strategies on how to do that have begun already. I've spent the
| days since the decision issued researching for you, so I can explain Bilski
| to you. There is too much material for just one article. So, I'll break it up
| into parts. My purpose is to make sure you understand fully, so you can be
| helpful with your ideas and so you can explain this issue to others, so they
| understand what is involved for FOSS. If there are parts you don't
| understand, ask. If I don't know the answer, I can ask someone.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20081103134949355
US patent ruling bodes well for tech
,----[ Quote ]
| The case in question was rejected because the patent at issue was a process
| not tied to a "machine", which is one standard for patentability.
|
| [...]
|
| "The standard articulated in this case should limit the outrageous business
| method and software patents that we have recently seen, without undermining
| the incentive to innovate in these areas."
`----
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62047897,00.htm
In re Bilski and the future of business method patents
,----[ Quote ]
| Duffy stressed that the patent at issue in State Street, the 1998 decision
| that gave the OK to software and business method patents, would be fine and
| dandy under the new test—it's just the test itself that changed. The court
| maintained the "core holding" of State Street, said Duffy, merely changing
| the "verbal formulation" required. (And the number of BM patents that will
| still be strong?—Many! Most! Almost all!)
`----
http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/2008/10/in-re-bilski-decided.html
CLE: How to Draft Software Claims under Bilski
,----[ Quote ]
| Going forward, I do not believe that these limitations will have a
| significant impact on a skilled practitioner's ability to patent software
| innovations.
`----
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/11/cle-how-to-draf.html
Patent Court: You Can No Longer Patent Thin Air
,----[ Quote ]
| In essence, the ruling means that business ideas in and of themselves aren’t
| patentable. In addition to Amazon’s “one-click” patent, which is the concept
| of purchasing something via credit card by just clicking a single website
| link, Friendster’s patents on social networking also come to mind as being
| unpatentable based on this judgement. That patent covers a “system, method
| and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on
| their relationships within social networks” and a “method of inducing content
| uploads in a social network,” amongst other claims.
`----
http://mashable.com/2008/10/30/patent-business-ideas/
Court limits 'business method' patents
Federal Circuit Enforces Limit on Business Method Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The result: While the court did not categorically exclude business method
| patents, it held fast the idea that any method, whether business-related or
| not, must be tethered to a machine or some sort of physical transformation,
| says Stephen Maebius, a partner at Foley & Lardner.
`----
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/10/federal-circuit-enforces-limit-on-business-method-patents.html
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Message-Id: <6299957.m...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] Microsoft (Co)Founder Collaborates with World's Biggest Patent Troll on Life Blackmail
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:20:46 +0000
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This Could Save Many Lives: Let's Patent It
,----[ Quote ]
| Just one problemette: he's decided to patent the idea, along with his clever
| old chum Nathan Myhrvold.
|
| The filings were made by Searete LLC, an entity tied to Intellectual
| Ventures, the Bellevue-based patent and invention house run by Nathan
| Myhrvold, the former Microsoft chief technology officer. Myhrvold and
| several others are listed along with Gates as inventors.
|
| After all, can't have people just going out there and saving thousands of
| lives without paying for the privilege, can we?
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-could-save-many-lives-lets-patent.html
Related:
Bill Gates, top Microsoft executives do some of their inventing on the side
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates and several of Microsoft’s top technologists are credited as
| inventors in eight newly disclosed U.S. patent applications. That isn’t a
| surprise. But here’s where it starts to get unusual: The applications weren’t
| made on Microsoft’s behalf.
|
| [...]
|
| Here's what we know: An entity called Searete LLC applied for the patents.
| Searete is part of Intellectual Ventures LLC, the Bellevue-based invention
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| house run by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former chief technology officer.
| Myhrvold’s company has stirred controversy with its large patent hoard.
`----
Top Microsoft Execs Moonlighting For a Patent Bully
,----[ Quote ]
| "TechFlash reports that Microsoft bigwigs like Craig Mundie and Bill Gates
| (when he still worked there) have been secretly moonlighting at Intellectual
| Ventures (IV), the 'patent extortion fund' run by Bill's pal Nathan Myhrvold.
| A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that its technologists have been sitting in
| on IV-sponsored 'innovation sessions,' where their pearls of wisdom were
| captured and turned into patent applications for Searete, an IV shadow
| corporate entity. And if all goes well, Searete will soon enjoy exclusive
| rights to the fruit of the brainstorming, which includes processes ranging
| from determining and rewarding 'influencers' to treating malaria, HIV, TB,
| hepatitis, smallpox, and cancer."
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/211259
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation- Truth Revealed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttq0IdULfjg
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation- Truth Revealed Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVlnqnMHQ1c
Bill Gates and friends apply for electromagnetic engine patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The patent applications, made public today, were filed by Searete LLC, which
| is part of Intellectual Ventures, the Bellevue-based invention house and
| patent company. Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former chief technology officer,
| runs Intellectual Ventures and is also named among the inventors on the
| electromagnetic-engine patent applications.
|
| That suggests the filings resulted from one of Intellectual Ventures'
| brainstorming sessions, in which Gates has been known to participate.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Bill_Gates_and_friends_apply_for_patents_on_electromagnetic_engine_42745822.html
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Message-Id: <1315513.j...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Drone SCO Gets Sued
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:23:35 +0000
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Darl, Norris, Bryan Cave Named as Defendants in IP Litigation - The Pelican
Brief
,----[ Quote ]
| Well, my dreams are coming true. This is better than eagles. A new lawsuit
| with Darl McBride, Stephen Norris and Bryan Cave all named as defendants by
| Pelican Equity. The accusation? Theft of trade secrets.
|
| No. Wait. Wait. Wait. It gets better. They are also accused of violating the
| Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. There is a God! [passes out from joy]
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009070123514867
SCO Files Notice of Cure Amounts Re Leases and Executory Contracts
,----[ Quote ]
| There is a monster SCO filing in the bankruptcy, 531 pages, I'm told, a
| Notice of Cure Amounts in Connection with the Assumption and Assignment of
| Unexpired Leases and Executory Contracts [PDF] and then a 7-part exhibit. SCO
| proposes to transfer everything on this list to unXis "free and clear of all
| liens, claims, encumbrances and interests upon satisfaction of the cure
| amounts... except for Assumed Liabilities and Permitted Encumbrances".
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090708223757362
Recent:
SCO's New Proposed Sale Plan - Wants to Sue Linux Users Some More
,----[ Quote ]
| - By the way, did you catch the part about "other potential defendants" in
| addition to Novell, IBM, Red Hat and AutoZone? Everybody pretty much goes to
| unXis, leaving McBride as captain of the Good Ship SCO, and he gets to sue
| and sue and sue, while the assets have gone to unXis, so if SCO loses all the
| litigation, then the victors get no spoils and can't be be made whole by the
| legal process. But what particularly struck me is SCO saying that they will
| be able "to move the UNIX business forward with unXis in a very exciting
| way." "With unXis"? In what sense? It starts to hint that this is more a
| renaming, taking in some new management who seem to have financial expertise,
| and SCO keeps skipping along as unXis, with the dangerous litigation spun off
| safely into a litigation troll. Is that not what you see?
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090623013806705
SCO wants to keep waging legal war after $2.4M asset sale
,----[ Quote ]
| SCO has secured a deal to sell off its major assets for $2.4 million to an IT
| consulting firm called Unxis. The agreement, which is still awaiting court
| approval, specifies that SCO retains the right to continue pursuing its
| litigation.
`----
SCO vs. Linux: New investor rescues SCO from bankruptcy
,----[ Quote ]
| In yet another bizarre twist in the interminable legal dispute over source
| code allegedly illegally copied from UNIX System V into Linux, the SCO Group,
| which claims ownership of the disputed code, has secured a last-gasp reprieve
| from the threat of liquidation. Immediately before the crucial liquidation
| hearing in the bankruptcy court, SCO CEO Darl McBride signed an agreement
| with a company by the name of Gulf Capital Partners, backed by well-known
| investor Stephen Norris. Caught out by the surprise development, all parties
| have agreed to postpone the liquidation hearing until the 16th or the 27th of
| July.
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/SCO-vs-Linux-New-investor-rescues-SCO-from-bankruptcy--/news/113540
SCO Group strikes deal just before bankruptcy hearing
,----[ Quote ]
| The SCO Group lives.
|
| Facing life or death, officers of the embattled Utah software company signed
| a deal Monday just before walking into a federal bankruptcy courtroom for a
| hearing on motions to liquidate it. Instead, they proposed selling off the
| company's Unix business to a London-based firm, while keeping its licensing
| claims that are part of high-profile lawsuits involving IBM, Novell and other
| companies.
|
| The SCO Group also would retain its mobile application business, an area
| where it sees big potential growth.
|
| "We signed that deal just minutes before the court hearing, and walked in and
| handed it to them, " said Darl McBride, CEO of Lindon-based SCO.
`----
http://www.sltrib.com/technology/ci_12595750
Last Minute Filings in SCO Bankruptcy - Hearing Later Today - Update: 1st word;
2nd Update
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615122117389
After the Hearing: Reports From Our Eyewitnesses - Updated
,----[ Quote ]
| So, the bottom line of the day is that the proposed sale to
| Gulf-Cap-whatever-their-name-really-turns-out-to-be (see previous article)
| will have a hearing on July 16, as Webster earlier reported. So we will no
| doubt get to see the proposed agreement filed, and then objections, the usual
| song and dance. So, bottom line? Delay, delay, delay. It's too bad SCO can't
| package it up and sell delay. They'd make a fortune. It is what they are best
| at, I'd say.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615122117389
After the Hearing: Reports From Our Eyewitnesses
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615195402823
SCO Does It, Quite Frankly, As Usual
,----[ Quote ]
| As it stands, everything remains up in the air — the proposed sale is by no
| means final, and if it is like any of the others, is likely nothing more than
| a delaying tactic. If the judge has any sense about him, when and if this
| deal falls through like all the rest, he'll wake up and finally start
| sanctioning SCO for treating the Bankruptcy Code like kindling. If it falls
| through by next month's hearing, SCO will need a miracle even Satan couldn't
| help them get to avoid conversion into a Chapter 7 — once the Chapter 7
| trustee gets his hands on them, they'll find themselves sold off faster than
| $5 Ferraris. By the time it finally happens, that champagne we all put away
| in 2002 will be just about right.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/sco-does-it-quite-frankly-usual
Related:
Shuttleworth: Microsoft Fracturing the Open-Source Community
,----[ Quote ]
| "That's extortion and we should call it what it is," he said. "To say, as
| [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet
| liability, that's just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that
| game. On the other side, if Microsoft is concerned about its intellectual
| property, there is no one in the free software community that wants to
| violate anyone's IP. Disclose the patents and we'll fix the code.
| Alternatively, move on."
|
| Microsoft has said it does disclose which patents are being violated, but
| only in one-on-one conversations with vendors. To Shuttleworth, that is not
| disclosure, because patents are public documents.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2167193,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
[Mark Shuttleworth Interview]
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won't
| say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: "It's an
| unsafe neighbourhood, why don't you pay me 20 bucks and I'll make
| sure you're okay," that's illegal. It's racketeering. What Microsoft
| is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It's a great
| company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a
| well considered position.
|
| So you wouldn't do a deal?
|
| No, absolutely not. But the time will come when the folks at
| Microsoft who have a clear vision for the company as a participant
| in this community, rather than as a hostile antagonist, will win.
`----
http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6672
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Message-ID: <5676150.6...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Expected to Use Politicians and AstroTurfers Against Google's Linux
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:25:40 +0000
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I For One Welcome Our New Google Overlords
,----[ Quote ]
| Expect trouble in the US!
|
| You will be thwarted. Microsoft owns too much of the US government for you
| not to be harassed. So don't worry about the US market. Remember, the Metric
| system caught on everywhere else but the US, too. The US will be your
| toughest market, even without bought-off senators and officials throwing
| themselves in your way like salmon.
|
| Ignore the siren song of asstroturfers!
|
| Don't be stupid like a few other open source projects and listen to the
| thousand flaming trolls in a comment page - they are paid to derail you.
| Google, you have done very little wrong so far; what market share you've
| acquired, you've earned fair and square. Don't start doubting yourself now.
`----
"Gates' gimmick of becoming a philantropist repeats the Rockefeller scam almost
one to one a century later."
-- http://www.whale.to/a/gates1.html
Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation
Recent:
Digg, Dug, Buried: How Linux news disappears
,----[ Quote ]
| But, that said, Digg admits that group of users-say Microsoft employees,
| partners, and supporters-can "abusively bury content." I'd add, not
| just 'can, but do.'
`----
http://blogs.computerworld.com/digg_dug_buried_how_linux_news_disappears
Editor's Note: Users Are Not As Stupid as the FUDsters Say
,----[ Quote ]
| Some of the grumpiness comes from the endless torrents of anti-Linux FUD,
| propaganda, misinformation, astroturfing, and just plain whining that keep
| pounding on the same theme: that Windows is easy, Linux is hard, and
| expecting computer users to spend more than eight or fifteen seconds in study
| is a sin. It has never been true that learning to use a personal computer is
| easy; that is a plain lie. Conversely, it's not that hard.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2009060600535OSCY
Related:
Is MS Preening in Public Posts?
,----[ Quote ]
| The author of the email, posted on ZDNet in a Talkback forum on the Microsoft
| antitrust trial, claimed her name was Michelle Bradley and that she
| had "retired" from Microsoft last week.
|
| "A verbal memo [no email allowed] was passed around the MS campus encouraging
| MS employee's to post to ZDNet articles like this one," the email said.
|
| "The theme is 'Microsoft is responsible for all good things in computerdom.'
| The government has no right to prevent MS from doing anything. Period.
| The 'memo' suggests we use fictional names and state and to identify
| ourselves as students," the author claimed.
`----
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/02/17745
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Message-ID: <1574061.p...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Shill Jonathan Zuck Exposed, Denounced, Retreats
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:28:06 +0000
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Eurocrats face proprietary FUD attack
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission effort to move the continent toward open standards is
| being threatened by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) from a group favoring
| proprietary solutions.
|
| [...]
|
| Clear out the rhetoric and Zuck is saying that monopolies created by patents,
| and only such monopolies, allow technology to move forward, and that a regime
| that truly demands open standards is an attempt to “impose one business model
| over another.”
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=4490
Complaints against EU open source agenda may overlook a policy breakthrough
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission policy review white paper released last week (PDF
| available here) was brought to light in the US this week by virtue of a
| comment from its most vocal opposition. Yesterday, press sources including
| IDG's Paul Meller quoted the Association for Competitive Technology's
| Jonathan Zuck as taking sides -- not surprisingly -- against the white paper,
| accusing the EC of bias in favour of open source software producers over
| commercial manufacturers.
|
| "We remain concerned that the policy framework suggested in the white paper
| seems to favour open source software over proprietary software to achieve more
| interoperability," reads another citation of Zuck's statement. Ironically,
| Zuck's ACT Web site from which the statement originated appeared to be the
| victim of a crash in its open source asset management system this morning, so
| only second-hand citations of Zuck were available today.
`----
Watch him run away.
Eurocrats face proprietary FUD attack
,----[ Quote ]
| Correction from ACT
| Hey, just stopping by to make small apology and perhaps a quick comment.
| First, our statement on the recent Whitepaper on ICT Standardisation was
| based on an old draft and released in error. My apology is here:
|
| http://blog.actonline.org/2009/07/our-own-own-goal.html
|
| However, dude, you're all over the map here. First you're referring to a
| press release from a year ago about something called the European
| Interoperability Framework and while that document is still evolving, I
| stand by our statment. One of the very examples you use of 802.11 would
| not be allowed in public producrment under the EIF because it's patent
| encumbered and royalty bearing.
|
| Happy to talk more. Next time you want to write about what I think, why
| not get my opinion first?
|
| Jonathan Zuck
| Pres.
| ACT
`----
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-10535-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=66580&messageID=1257746
At least they didn't write letters on behalf of dead people this time.
Related:
Peeping Larry
,----[ Quote ]
| That wasn't enough for Ellison. Oracle retained Washington-based
| Investigative Group International to probe the pro-Microsoft spinners in the
| antitrust battle. I.G.I. hit pay dirt. Oracle says that in the trash of the
| Independent Institute--which took out pro-Microsoft ads signed by leading
| academics--investigators found evidence that Microsoft had given the group
| more than $200,000. (The Independent Institute insists its positions have
| been unaffected by any support from Microsoft.)
`----
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,49039,00.html
Oracle-MS flap -- how it happened
,----[ Quote ]
| Oracle next turned its sights on the Microsoft-backed Association for
| Competitive Technology, which in January announced it would file a
| friend-of-the-court brief on Microsoft's behalf, using a team of prestigious
| former government lawyers. Oracle's Washington team viewed the move as
| outrageous, given the probability that the brief would be paid for with money
| from Microsoft itself. In April, Oracle told IGI to look into ACT.
|
| Soon yet another player surfaced: the National Taxpayers Union. It had long
| been publicly criticising a suit against Microsoft by state attorneys general
| as "government-led larceny of Microsoft's intellectual property." In mid-May,
| as the group renewed its attacks on the government, Oracle again suspected
| the hidden hand of its software foe. Once again, it dispatched IGI, which
| promptly went trash-hunting. IGI discovered that the National Taxpayers Union
| had received more than $200,000 from Microsoft. That information surfaced in
| The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post in May.
|
| [...]
|
| It was trash-hunting at ACT, however, that ultimately brought Oracle's
| entanglement to light. For that, Oracle can thank Robert M. Walters and a
| conscientious cleaning crew.
|
| In May, Walters, an amiable former journalist who was IGI's chief
| anti-Microsoft detective, leased an office near ACT's Washington offices. He
| used his own name but identified himself as an official of "Upstream
| Technologies."
|
| [...]
|
| Walters also paid $4,445 to lease the office space near ACT using a check
| drawn on his personal bank account, according to records obtained by the
| Journal. And he used the telephone in the Upstream office to call his home
| and his wife at her office. Those calls later were easily traced because they
| were routed through the building's computerised phone system. Together, these
| steps bore the mark of a detective who appeared not particularly worried
| about covering his true identity. In June of 1999, Washington lobbyists for
| software giant Oracle Corp. grew dismayed by the skill with which Oracle's
| bitterest rival, Microsoft Corp., seemed to be manipulating public opinion.
| As Microsoft faced the antitrust fight of its life, a group called the
| Independent Institute bought full-page newspaper ads citing 240 academics who
| criticised the government's antitrust attack on Microsoft.
|
| [...]
|
| It wasn't long before IGI produced results: Internal documents showing that
| Microsoft had paid Independent Institute, based in Oakland, Calif., $153,000.
| Independent Institute President David Theroux suspects that information was
| stolen. People familiar with the operation, however, intimate that it was
| obtained by rifling through trash, a practice that isn't illegal. IGI
| Chairman Terry Lenzner said Wednesday that his firm "abides by a rigorous
| code of ethics and conducts all of its investigations in a lawful manner,"
| and that its work for Oracle "was conducted in strict accordance with these
| standards."
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-96149.html
EU open-source document reflects Microsoft influence
,----[ Quote ]
| One such editor is Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for
| Competitive Technology, a lobbying organisation with strong ties to
| Microsoft. There is nothing wrong with Microsoft making its voice heard in
| the software strategy development process, as it stands to gain or lose much
| in the process, but it does make for some interesting political gamesmanship
| in the document.
|
| While the draft doesn't make it obvious who is saying what, there are
| numerous instances where editors have tried to soften the appeal of open
| source or downplay its significance, repeatedly trying to insist that open
| source not be called out as more significant than proprietary software.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10193433-16.html
How to Hijack an EU Open Source Strategy Paper
,----[ Quote ]
| Others as in Microsoft and mates.
|
| All-in-all, the modifications to the document provide a fascinating insight
| into how lobbyists operate in their attempt to neuter threats to their
| constituencies through the shameless evisceration and outright inversion of
| content. Fortunately, when the final strategy document comes out, we will be
| able to pinpoint exactly where ACT's agenda has been inserted. Of course,
| before then we need to make the above document as widely known as possible,
| so that the relevant people at the European Union are aware of what's going
| on, and maybe even take action to prevent this gross distortion of the
| paper's purpose.
|
| In addition, we must ensure that Wikileaks can continue to provide its
| invaluable service. The world of openness – including open source - would be
| the poorer without it. To that end, we need to support its current call for
| funds to help it carry on its work, and I urge you to make a donation,
| however modest.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/how-hijack-eu-open-source-strategy-paper
European Commission OSS Strategy Draft, Mar 2009
,----[ Quote ]
| This file is an edited version of the EU OSS Strategy draft with the input of
| Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology, an
| organisation that has strong ties with Microsoft[1]
|
| The file is a draft for an expert panel formed by the European Commission.
| This panel is divided into workgroup (IPR, Open Source, digital life, etc.)
| ACT and Comptia have been infiltrating every workgroup, even the one on Open
| Source (WG 7). They are doing the best they can to drown any initiative that
| would not only promote OSS in Europe but also that could help Europe create a
| sucessful European software sector.
|
| The audience for this document could be journalists who would be interested
| in getting to know more how lobbies of all kind influence the European
| institutions. Here it is perhaps even more stringent as ACT is clearly an US
| organisation with ties to Microsoft. Verifications might not be easy as this
| is an internal draft. The best contact might be commission personnel:
| Lars.P...@ec.europa.eu ; Michel....@ec.europa.eu
|
| It has been leaked as it is important to have the public know how actual
| policy making is being influenced by lobbies that are precisely under the
| legal scrutiny of the European Commission. The urgency of the publication of
| this document is real in the sense that outside pressure would foce the
| Commission to "clean the committees" or at least give a lesser credit to the
| work of this workgroup.
`----
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/European_Commission_OSS_Strategy_Draft%2C_Mar_2009
Microsoft gains familiar ally in IE antitrust battle in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. gained a familiar ally in its latest antitrust battle with
| the European Commission today when the Association for Competitive Technology
| (ACT) was accepted as an interested third party in the case.
|
| [...]
|
| Washington-based ACT, whose members include Microsoft, Oracle, eBay and
| dozens of smaller companies, stood by Microsoft in an earlier European
| antitrust case that resulted in the software vendor being found guilty of
| monopoly abuse in 2004. The group made passionate arguments in favour of
| Microsoft during hearings held by the EC and the appeals process at the
| European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131834
ACT backs Microsoft in Brussels' IE legal spat
,----[ Quote ]
| The Association for Competitive Technology has been accepted as an interested
| third party in the case.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/21/act_supports_ie_eu_case/
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Message-ID: <30454076....@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Folks Keep Promoting Mono, FSF Says No
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:32:31 +0000
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Of Monopolies and Mono
,----[ Quote ]
| Peter Brown, the Free Software Foundation's executive director, though still
| isn't impressed. Brown said, "It's my understanding that Microsoft has not
| yet announced anything officially, but assuming it follows up on this blog
| post and covers ECMA 334 and 335 under the Community Promise, it will not
| protect free software from the threats we have been discussing That's because
| Mono implements, and Tomboy depends upon, a number of libraries which
| are 'standard' in the sense that they're under C#'s "System" namespace
| (indicating that they're part of the standard library) and provided in
| Microsoft's implementation, but somewhat pointedly excluded from the ECMA
| specifications."
|
| So, Brown continued, "If the question is, should GNU/Linux distributions
| include Mono? Then the community promise from Microsoft covering these two
| specifications clearly isn't sufficient. That they won't sue us for
| infringement of some of their Mono patents is useless if they reserve the
| right to sue us over other Mono patents. If Microsoft really wants to assure
| the free software community that it does not intend to attack applications
| based on Mono in the future, it should issue a patent licence to everyone for
| all the patents that are necessarily infringed by the complete implementation
| of Mono, that allows users to use, share, and modify the software as they see
| fit."
|
| [...]
|
| But, Roy Schestowitz, editor of Boycott Novell thinks that focusing on the
| patent issue alone is a mistake. Schestowitz said, "Patents were never the
| sole issue when it comes to Mono." Microsoft doesn't allow deviation from
| the .NET core. "This ensures that Microsoft stays in control. This leads to
| no independence, which Microsoft may describe as 'fragmentation.'"
`----
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6793/2/
Microsoft Community Promise & MONO
,----[ Quote ]
| So why didn't Microsoft's lawyers include this in the main body? Microsoft's
| lawyers aren't stupid (I know one of them, she's a really smart lady). So why
| did they write it in this confused way?
|
| I don't know. It doesn't make any sense.
`----
http://crankyoldnutcase.blogspot.com/2009/07/microsoft-community-promise-mono.html
Mono promise is nice, Microsoft. What about Linux?
,----[ Quote ]
| Carlo Daffara, an open-source consultant, rightly notes that Microsoft's
| patent promise is not directly on Mono, but rather on these ECMA standards,
| which leaves "most of Mono...encumbered as before (WinForms, ADO.NET, ...)."
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10280924-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
I still believe this is a victory for Microsoft!
,----[ Quote ]
| I am already laughing sarcastically when I imagine the faces of those Linux
| developers who, after having told their boss that they know C# and Mono, will
| be assigned to an ASP.NET project… on a Microsoft platform that uses the
| genuine .NET! Because this is what will happen!
|
| And when you think that, after the initial unknown motivation to start
| developing Mono, the whole thing took exposure after some moron wrote Tomboy!
|
| Therefore, believe me or not, my twisted radar tells me that in the long run,
| Tomboy and F-Spot are going to boost the sales of Microsoft Dynamics, which
| is a .NET range of products. Good work, Steve, and good work, Miguel.
`----
http://beranger.org/v3/wordpress/2009/07/07/i-still-believe-this-is-a-victory-for-microsoft/
Does Mono even matter anymore these days?
,----[ Quote ]
| Anyway, who should care about this? Gnome developers mostly. The rest of us
| have gone out of the .Net and Java wars after around 2004 or 2005, and have
| realised that there other realities such as Qt and Python (to name just a
| few), and most of all, there is the Internet, and the POSH (Plain Old Simple
| Html), and that new little Linux distributions launched by Google… And so
| much more.
|
| Mono and .Net is one of the last schemes from an outdated behemoth; both the
| scheme and its inventor will soon fade in blissful irrelevance. It does not
| mean it cannot sting back though….
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2009/07/08/does-mono-even-matter-anymore-these-days/
Mono: Microsoft community promise inadequate, says RMS
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26166/1090
The pro-Microsoft Gavin Clarke giving de Icaza exposure, as usual:
Open-source .NET splits for extra Microsoft protection
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/07/mono_splits/
All working to spread .NET everywhere.
Mary Jo Foley too. Oh, how Microsoft loves Mono!
Microsoft removes a hurdle for Mono
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3242
Recent:
Stallman says "Don't depend on Mono"
,----[ Quote ]
| The debate over Mono has simmered ever since the Mono C# implementation was
| announced. The suspicion has been that Microsoft have patents that are
| relevant to C# and are just waiting for Linux developers to become
| comfortable with Mono so they can pull the rug out from under Linux. Mono's
| defenders point out that Mono itself is an implementation of the ECMA
| standard for C# and that the patents that are usually referred to belong to
| the higher .Net layers which run on C# based systems, but aren't implemented
| as a core part of Mono. Microsoft made a statement in 2003 saying the patents
| which are relevant to the ECMA/ISO standard are "royalty-free and otherwise
| RAND"; a somewhat confusing statement without saying which technology falls
| under the royalty free and which is under RAND terms (Reasonable And Non
| Discriminatory).
|
| In some ways though, the worries about Mono are of the Mono project's own
| making. By having the project implement both the ECMA/ISO covered elements
| and the more obviously patented ASP.NET, ADO.NET and Windows.Forms
| components, the lines have been blurred for many as to what is or is not
| patent safe. Stallman's statement says that all C# implementations are
| potentially unsafe from a patent attack from Microsoft.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/141254
Linux is being tamed.
,----[ Quote ]
| Assuming Mono gets shoved into Linux and gains acceptance, then Linux
| is "tamed." Even without the patent threat, even if C# is some sort
| of "standard," Microsoft still defines .NET and everything about it. From
| past behaviour it's quite evident that they know how to walk the fine line of
| bending "standards" to their will and marketplace benefit. Mono gives
| Microsoft power over a major Linux Desktop API, and the ability to make sure
| it's always the "second platform", always a day late and a dollar short.
|
| The other interesting thing about Mono is that nobody is asking for it.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-06-27-009-39-OP-DB-MS-0004
Ubuntu tech board plays down Mono IP concerns
http://osdir.com/Article10305.phtml
Hands off the Gimp
,----[ Quote ]
| How to I scale an image in f-spot ? If there’s a way, I have not been able to
| find it (same for red eyes). How do I annotate an image (putting text
| somewhere) ?
|
| Yet people ask “Gimp is cool but.. should it belong to LiveCD?” I’ll give you
| a better question: what should belong to the LiveCD ?
|
| Removing GIMP from the LiveCd fully defeats the showing off purpouse of the
| LiveCd and lives you without any handy tool to perform basic manipulation on
| images. Now, it can be just me, but I can’t find anything useful in that
| regard inside Jaunty’s f-spot.
`----
http://www.stefanoforenza.com/hands-off-the-gimp/
The elusive, royalty-free patent licence for Mono
,----[ Quote ]
| How difficult or easy is it to obtain one of the much-touted "royalty-free,
| reasonable and non-discriminatory" licences for Microsoft patents that are
| part of a technology like Mono?
|
| Judging by the frequency with which references are made to such licences by
| those who back Novell vice-president Miguel de Icaza's bid to create an open
| source clone of Microsoft's .NET development environment, it's surprising
| that no-one has ever ventured to test this claim.
|
| The idea of trying to find out what was involved arose after reading a nearly
| nine-month old, well-written post defending the use of Mono and mocking its
| detractors. The author, Jo Shields, is a Debian developer and works for
| Oxford University.
|
| [...]
|
| He replied two days later, pointing out, "Ecma does not have anything to do
| with possible licensing of .NET. But Microsoft is one of our members, so I
| have asked them whom to contact there – if anything is needed, what I just do
| not know."
|
| Dr Sebestyn added: "My contact at Microsoft said that you should contact
| Peggy Moloney there, who would be able to help you."
|
| I wrote to Ms Moloney on April 28, asking for the same information: "I
| understand that the terms of the licences to the patents which Microsoft
| holds on the .NET development platform permit people to obtain a
| royalty-free, reasonable and non-discriminatory licence to use them. I would
| be grateful if you let me know exactly how one obtains such a licence."
|
| I also asked her about the variance in the terms for the licensing of
| Moonlight, a clone of Microsoft's Silverlight, using which the company hopes
| to capture the market that is dominated by Adobe's Flash. De Icaza is behind
| this project as well.
|
|
| [...]
|
| There's a been a deafening silence since then. There the matter stands after
| nearly a month. You would think that's a decent period for anyone to think
| things through and respond - if the intention of doing so exists.
|
| To me, it looks this licence is as real as the unicorn. Or maybe Santa Claus.
| I think Mono fans need to think of a fresh defence when people talk about the
| dangers of patent suits arising over this technology. The licence talk has
| worn more than a little thin.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25215/1090/
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Message-Id: <3917938.I...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Programmes Keep Dropping Like (Butter)Flies
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:35:55 +0000
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Microsoft clips Butterfly programme's wings
,----[ Quote ]
| The rumours circulating earlier this week were true: Microsoft has decided to
| pull the plug on its MSN/Windows Live Butterfly programme.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3222
Recent:
Microsoft Kills Response Point Development
,----[ Quote ]
| After weeks of speculation, Microsoft has essentially killed Response Point —
| the company’s former VoIP system for small businesses. According to a
| Microsoft Town Hall meeting today with VARs, the product is in maintenance
| mode with no future releases planned. Sorry for the following comparison, but
| Response Point has become Microsoft’s modern day OS/2. Here’s why.
|
| Alas, Response Point is a product with an eager, niche following that didn’t
| officially die. Instead, Response Point will fade away (quickly, The VAR Guy
| predicts) through maintenance mode support. IBM used the same strategy to
| walk away from OS/2 a decade ago.
`----
http://www.thevarguy.com/2009/06/30/microsoft-kills-response-point-development/
Microsoft's sidewalk memorial to Encarta, Money and other fossils
,----[ Quote ]
| For anyone who's never been there, the company has this great old courtyard
| in Redmond where for many years it placed plaques in the sidewalk for nearly
| every piece of software it shipped.
`----
Microsoft Encarta died - why? And will its contents be lost?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has recently announced that its beloved encyclopaedia, Microsoft
| Encarta, will soon be discontinued. After October 31, 2009 its contents will
| no longer be available. Both the online version and the CD ROM version will
| be discontinued.
|
| My first reaction was “what a pity”. My job is to gather and publish good
| contents. I know how much work goes into creating and publishing material.
| This news must have been quite hard to digest for people who have been
| working on Encarta for a while. The two main questions that come to mind,
| however, are: “Why?”, and more importantly, “What about the contents?”
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/fsm_newsletter_12_april_2009_encarta_died
Related:
Microsoft Slaps PC Gamers, Decides to Close Ensemble Studios
,----[ Quote ]
| Despite its legacy of producing some of the very finest strategy games with
| its Age of Empire and Age of Mythology series, Microsoft decided that it
| would be financially disadvantageous to continue to operate the wholly-owned
| Ensemble Studios.
`----
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-ensemble-halo-age-empires,6343.html
Microsoft shuts down Ensemble Studios
http://www.techspot.com/news/31575-microsoft-shuts-down-ensemble-studios.html
Microsoft Burns Down Book Search
,----[ Quote ]
| Citing poor demand, Microsoft will back away from scanning and indexing books
| and academic works for Live Search
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/23/microsoft-burns-down-book-search
EFF: Microsoft betrayed MSN Music customers
,----[ Quote ]
| The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that Microsoft has "betrayed" MSN
| Music customers and wants the company to make things right by issuing an
| apology, refunds, and eliminate digital rights management technology from the
| Zune music player.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931304-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
MSN Music Debacle Highlights EULA Dangers
,----[ Quote ]
| MSN Music’s EULA is a case in point. When active, MSN Music's webpage touted
| that customers could “choose their device and know its going to work”.
|
| But when customers went to purchase songs, they were shown legalese that
| stated the download service and the content provided were sold without
| warrantee. In other words, Microsoft doesn't promise you that the service or
| the music will work, or that you will always have access to music you bought.
| The flashy advertising promised your music, your way, but the fine print
| said, our way or the highway.
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/msn-music-debacle-highlights-eula-dangers
When DRM detonates your music collection
,----[ Quote ]
| It is all down to the digital rights management (DRM) software that Microsoft
| has embedded in all its music downloads to combat illegal file-sharing. For
| DRM to work it needs a central computer to keep a live record of who has
| registered which songs to which computers. The problem is that the main
| server is now being turned off as the company wants to sell downloads with a
| new type of DRM. How odd that the old system was marketed as PlaysForSure.
`----
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3898784.ece
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Message-ID: <2680470.V...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] New National Moves to ODF and Ogg Vorbis
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:38:50 +0000
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Becta signs 'improved' Microsoft deal
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft also provides support in Office 2007 for the Open Document Format
| (ODF) file format, a move that Becta has acknowledged.
`----
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=5B151CF4-1A64-6A71-CE26CA0CEDAC95E7
Bull.
It doesn't. Microsoft ruins it with MSODF.
Battle for multi-billion dollar e-governance projects hots up
,----[ Quote ]
| Incidentally, there has never been a more intense global industry debate
| over ‘open standards’. On the one hand is Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML)
| file format backed by Apple, Novell, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and Nasscom. On the
| other is the Open Document Format (ODF), supported by the likes of IBM, Sun
| Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, the Department of Information Technology
| (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Mumbai and IIM-Ahmedabad.
|
| India recently maintained its earlier stance of “No” to the software major’s
| OOXML (which has been accepted by the International Organisation for
| Standardisation (ISO) as an international standard).
|
| ODF proponents oppose OOXML on the grounds that “multiple standards” are not
| good, while Microsoft argues that OOXML — a recognised standard by ECMA
| International too — is a response to evolving technology formats in line with
| continual evolving technology systems. The debate appears to be a proxy for
| product competition in the marketplace, argue opponents. It is significant,
| in part, because it will influence the future success of Microsoft Office —
| one of Microsoft’s largest and most profitable product families.
|
| Governments are wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats, which
| could make them hostage to a software vendor. States such as Delhi, Kerala
| and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which
| are open and free (excluding maintenance and support).
`----
Norway: ODF is in - OOXML is out
,----[ Quote ]
| The Norwegian government has made a clear statement in a new catalogue covering
| data standards of various purposes.
`----
http://lodahl.blogspot.com/2009/07/norway-odf-is-in-ooxml-is-out.html
Apparently they move to Ogg too.
Congratulations to the new OASIS Board
,----[ Quote ]
| Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who voted for me, and all
| of my supporters, inside and outside the OASIS who were kind enough to
| dedicate time and effort to this project. Next time will be better and I
| look forward working with all you again.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2009/06/25/congratulations-to-the-new-oasis-board/
How to avid metadata misadventure
,----[ Quote ]
| 3BClean scrubs the metadata from Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and
| PowerPoint) files, Open Document Format (ODF) files, as well as generating
| PDFs.
`----
http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=16946
'Document Collaboration - Linking People, Process, and Content' available now
through Aarkstore Enterprise
,----[ Quote ]
| Open Document Format (ODF) has achieved growing acceptance as the document
| format of choice for governments around the world, less than six months after
| its adoption as an international standard.
`----
http://www.prminds.com/pressrelease.php?id=7816
[whatwg] Codecs for <audio> and <video>
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-June/020620.html
Why IE Doesn't Support HTML 5 Video (Yet)
,----[ Quote ]
| Mozilla supports HTML 5 video, Microsoft doesn't yet but without a codec
| specified, does it matter?
`----
http://www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.phpr/3828901
Microsoft is a barrier because it tries spreading its proprietary media player
and Silver Lie.
Recent:
Why Microsoft Hates - No, *Really* Hates - ODF
,----[ Quote ]
| What this means is that Microsoft is only making big money on its Office
| suite, for whose luxurious margins it must therefore fight tooth and nail.
| Which, judging by its behaviour at the ISO, and some more recent stories, is
| exactly what it is doing in the face of growing pressure from open ODF-based
| alternatives like OpenOffice.org.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2269&blogid=14
Rob Weir Exposes an Anti-ODF Whisper Campaign
,----[ Quote ]
| Alex Brown, the convenor of the OOXML BRM, has been editing Wikipedia's
| article on ODF. That strikes me odd, like finding out Steve Jobs had been
| editing the Microsoft Zune page. Some things are simply inappropriate. It
| puzzles me why Wikipedia allows it, frankly.
|
| If you read the talk page on ODF, you'll see that there are others there
| trying mightily to spin the article on ODF more negatively than is factual.
| And such rudeness! Plenty of smears against Groklaw too, I couldn't help but
| notice. It does seem to me that there is a marked increase in what I view as
| a concerted submarine marketing effort. Some of it is subtle. Most of it is
| not. A fair measure of it is mean-spirited. Some of it is lies, pure and
| simple.
|
| In the good old days, dead people supported Microsoft, if you remember that
| funny headline about a pro-Microsoft astroturfing campaign, but at least it
| wasn't a smear campaign, just pro-Microsoft. Nowadays, I think I would have
| to rewrite the headline to read, "Mean People Support Microsoft." Or worse.
| You see, Groklaw has been visited recently by several OOXML types, including
| Alex Brown, Doug Mahue of Microsoft, and Rick Jelliffe, all singing pretty
| much the same songs, posting on our ODF articles, so I got to watch it close
| up. I puzzled over it, because they seemed so deliberately rude.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009061001520015
http://markmail.org/search/?q=Alex+Brown&q=list%3Aorg.oasis-open.lists.office-comment
ODF Lies and Whispers
,----[ Quote ]
| So what is one to do? You obviously can't trust Wikipedia whatsoever in this
| area. This is unfortunate, since I am a big fan of Wikipedia. But since the
| day when Microsoft decided they needed to pay people to "improve" the ODF and
| OOXML articles, they have been a cesspool of FUD, spin and outright lies,
| seemingly manufactured for Microsoft's re-use in their whisper campaign. My
| advice would be to seek out official information on the standards, from the
| relevant organisations, like OASIS, the chairs of the relevant committees,
| etc. Ask the questions in public places and seek a public response. That is
| the ultimate weakness of FUD and lies. They cannot stand the light of public
| exposure. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/06/odf-lies-and-whispers.html
Microsoft Office tries to break ODF
,----[ Quote ]
| Just a quick update to our OpenDocument campaign, with news that Microsoft
| Office has added support for ODF, but in a state that leaves it incompatible
| with every other ODF capable application out there, including OpenOffice.org
| and KOffice.
`----
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/odf-office
Sun ODF Plugin 3.1 for Microsoft Office
,----[ Quote ]
| A new version of the ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office is available.
|
| As I wrote in the last ODF Plugin announcement, the Plugin nowadays uses the
| same version number like the underlying OpenOffice.org version, so this
| version is now based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/malte/entry/sun_odf_plugin_3_01
6 Projects We Hope Apple Is Building
,----[ Quote ]
| 2. OpenDocument Format (ODF) support in iWorks
|
| ODF is an ISO standard for office document formats, with many government
| agencies in the world adopt the standard as compulsory interchange format.
| More organisations would be willing to adopt iWorks if ODF is a supported
| format. For consumers, it means their files can be saved in a format that is
| independent of iWorks software version changes.
`----
http://sanziro.com/2009/06/6-projects-we-hope-apple-is-building.html
ODF adoption continues - has it ‘crossed the chasm’?
,----[ Quote ]
| What prompted me to realise this just today? I receive the ODF Alliance
| Newsletter regularly in my inbox. Today, I noticed the following:
|
| (note that while the URL is in Spanish, the translation can be seen here
| thanks to Google)
| ECUADOR CHARTS PATH TO ODF ADOPTION
`----
http://www.michaeldolan.com/1420
Microsoft And ODF: Bad For Everyone
,----[ Quote ]
| In shocking news, Microsoft’s support of ODF in Microsoft Office is basically
| unusable in many respects, according to the OpenDocument Format Alliance.
| This is a real problem for ODF’s adoption, since Office users who try using
| it, either for opening a document or for sending a document to someone else,
| will likely blame their issues on ODF, and, thus, avoid it.
|
| What Microsoft has done with ODF support seems likely to harm ODF’s
| acceptance, rather than help it. It’s hard to tell if this move was
| incompetent or malicious or something entirely different?
`----
http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/05/22/microsoft-and-odf-bad-for-everyone/
Microsoft's ODF support is broken, says alliance
ODF is not the same as ODF?
,----[ Quote ]
| ODF implemented by one company is not the same as implemented by the other
| seven products.
|
| There's rumble in the web during the last days. And the reason is something
| to celebrate, but regrettably only for the first look. Microsoft published
| Service Pack 2 for their Microsoft Office 2007 product and for the first time
| in history they decided to officially support saving and opening in Open
| Document Standard (ODF). Really, that's the right step towards a higher level
| of interoperability! Congratulations!
`----
http://www.osor.eu/communities/openoffice-in-public-authorities/blog/odf-is-not-the-same-as-odf
Microsoft’s ODF support is broken, says alliance
,----[ Quote ]
| ODF Alliance managing director Marino Marcich said in a press statement this
| week that “support for ODF represents an important and ongoing test of
| Microsoft’s commitment to real-world interoperability. Unfortunately, serious
| shortcomings have been identified in Microsoft’s support for ODF. Putting
| potentially millions of ODF files into circulation that are non-interoperable
| and incompatible with the ODF support provided by other vendors is a recipe
| for fragmentation.”
`----
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=4806
Links for the 20th of May 2009
,----[ Quote ]
| # I could point to other blogs, but this one comes from Jeremy Allison,
| author of Samba, now working for the great Satan Google. It’s actually quite
| interesting because what Jeremy is saying is that all this dispute seems to
| be based on the impression that Microsoft did the minimum to have ODF work
| inside MS Office. My take on this is we should first stop getting ballistic
| at each other, especially inside the ODF TC. What is needed in the interest
| of ODF and the users, is to have a careful examination not on the ODF
| conformance in MS Office, but on why, based on experience, the
| interoperability is severely hampered when using ODF with MS Office. Based on
| this analysis we should be able to go forward. But don’t let this fool you:
| this has, I’m afraid, nothing to do with the development of ODF 1.2.
| # As an interesting reminder, here’s what the European Commission was saying
| about Microsoft’s announcement on the support of ODF inside MS Office last
| year.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2009/05/20/links-for-the-20th-of-may-2009/
Is OOXML the better standard?
,----[ Quote ]
| No, it is not in my opinion. But I think that is what Microsoft now tries to
| make us public authorities think. I know about the facts behind the scenes. I
| know that this company declines real support for ODF by doing something
| strange, not aiming at real interoperability, but at a Microsoft
| implementation of ODF, not compatible with others. So they, as worldwide
| market leader, can proof the insufficiency of ODF. And they have the solution
| for us. Use OOXML instead. It implements every function Microsoft Office
| does. And the next step is, that other interested implementations should
| improve their products to implement everything OOXML does. Really simple,
| isn’t it?
`----
http://www.floschi.info/2009/05/is-ooxml-the-better-standard/
Overunderdoing: patterns in Microsoft's interoperability stance
,----[ Quote ]
| Well, if we're talking about interoperability it has been done. Or tried. We
| could call it overunderdoing. Here's the algorithm:
|
| 1. pick one interoperability concern
| 2. solve it up to 85% (percentage may vary)
| 3. wisely choose the 15% to leave out so interoperability can be said
| to work but with constant annoyances
| 4. make a loud announcement to the press
| 5. profit: everyone will read the announcement but only a small
| fraction of such readers will notice the missing bits; despite the
| claimable advances over the previous situation it still won't be
| practical to make any use of the announced interoperability
`----
http://blog.angulosolido.pt/2009/05/overunderdoing-patterns-in-microsofts.html
Microsoft's latest aggression on ODF, codenamed "cast lead"
,----[ Quote ]
| Once again they did it. Microsoft is telling the world that they are
| improving interoperability across existing office formats and applications
| thanks to their native support for the ODF file format, a leading office file
| format based on existing ISO standards. But it could not be further from the
| truth.
|
| Microsoft are actually killing ODF, like the digital nazis that they are.
| Kissinger is proud of their spiritual sons.
|
| What kind of white phosphorus are they using ?
|
| First they don't write to ODF but to a canada dry version that we shall call
| MS-ODF, a variant filled with countless exploding mines, thrown from the air
| like any coward would do. Namely they are implanting the proprietary Excel
| formula syntax right inside files expecting the ODF formula syntax as exposed
| by all the ODF compatible applications out there. Since formulas are used in
| many elements such as charts, conditional formattings and so on, it wrecks
| any serious spreadsheet.
`----
http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/2009/05/microsofts-latest-aggression-on-odf.html
ODF Alliance Tests Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 ODF Support - Finds Serious
Shortcomings
,----[ Quote ]
| The ODF Alliance has prepared a Fact Sheet [PDF; also available as text on
| their website, if you scroll down] for governments and others interested in
| how Microsoft's SP2 for Office 2007 handles ODF. The ODF Allliance says their
| testing revealed "serious shortcomings that, left unaddressed, would break
| the open standards based interoperability that the marketplace, especially
| governments, is demanding". The Fact Sheet itemises the major problems
| testing revealed. Marino Marcich, managing director of ODF Alliance, points
| to one huge shortcoming:
|
| “For example, even the most basic spreadsheet functions, such as adding
| the numbers contained in two cells, were simply stripped in an ODF file
| when opened and re-saved in Microsoft Office 2007. A document created in
| one ODF-supporting application, when re-saved in Microsoft Office 2007,
| rendered differently – missing bullets, page numbers, charts and other
| objects, changed fonts – making collaboration on an ODF file with Office
| 2007 very difficult. Indeed, some of the so-called 'plug-ins’ were
| revealed to provide better support for ODF than the recently released
| Microsoft Office 2007 SP2. This is no way to achieve the interoperability
| around ODF that the marketplace is demanding.”
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009051922175320
Microsoft’s ODF Support Falls Short
,----[ Quote ]
| The OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance today cautioned that serious
| deficiencies in Microsoft’s support for ODF needed to be addressed to ensure
| greater interoperability with other ODF-supporting software.
`----
http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/index.php/site/microsofts_odf_support_falls_short/
Microsoft & Interoperability: I think that now I really understood :)
,----[ Quote ]
| As most of you already know, I spent the month of October in a marathon of
| speeches about ODF. During the marathon, I had the opportunity to attend some
| presentations about Microsoft Interoperability and would like to share with
| you here some information about that cool experience (the post is long but
| worth a read).
|
| The first opportunity to see our friends from Redmond featuring the theme was
| at the rally held by them at the end of Latinoware 2008. I do not call that a
| presentation, because they did not allow questions from the audience, as a
| rally. Luckily the audience was not that big and I was on that room just be
| able to “write the facts” about the speech.
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/11/microsoft-interoperability-i-think-that-now-i-really-understood.html
ODF Alliance Warns Governments About Office 2007 ODF Support
,----[ Quote ]
| The ODF Alliance has prepared a Fact Sheet for governments and others
| interested in how Microsoft's SP2 for Office 2007 handles ODF. The report
| revealed 'serious shortcomings that, left unaddressed, would break the open
| standards based interoperability that the marketplace, especially
| governments, is demanding.
`----
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/20/1935232&from=rss
ODF Alliance: Microsoft Support for ODF is Lacking
,----[ Quote ]
| The Open Document Format (ODF) Alliance has analysed whether Microsoft’s
| Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 fulfills the promise for compatibility with
| the free document standard. Their findings give little reason to hope.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/online/news/odf_alliance_microsoft_support_for_odf_is_lacking
Working to Rule
,----[ Quote ]
| Yet Microsoft Office SP2 claims to have a fully compliant version of ODF, and
| that's probably true, as defined by the specification. It's just completely
| useless at interoperating with other vendors products. This is not
| interoperability, it's an attack on the very concept.
`----
MS forking ODF? They would love to.
,----[ Quote ]
| By the looks of it, I cannot but feel that MS has found a way to fork the ODF
| 1.1 to suite their world view of having their product as the only one out
| there. I have to agree with IBM's Rob Weir in this post.
`----
http://harishpillay.livejournal.com/158370.html
ODF interoperability event - Royal Library, The Hague - June 15/16 2009
ODF@WWW - An ODF Wiki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI0AEJkotzM
,----[ Quote ]
| I received from the ODF Alliance the following response to my email:
|
| That’s the plan for next week. A harder-hitting press release with Fact
| Sheet. Stay tuned!
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-154383/microsoft-now-attempts-to-sabotage-odf
A follow-up on Excel 2007 SP2's ODF support
,----[ Quote ]
| In other words, all of those Interoperability Directors and Interoperability
| Architects at Microsoft seem to have (hopefully temporarily) switched into
| Minimal Conformance Directors and Minimal Conformance Architects, and are
| gazing at their navels. I hope they did not suffer a reduction in salary
| commensurate with the reduction in their claimed responsibilities.
|
| [...]
|
| In any case, this comes down to why do you implement a standard. What are
| your goals? If your goal is be interoperable, then you perform
| interoperability testing and make those adjustments to your product necessary
| to make it be both conformant and interoperable. But if your goal is to
| simply fulfill a checkbox requirement without actually providing any tangible
| customer benefit, then you will do as little as needed. However, if your goal
| is to destroy a standard, then you will create a non-conformant,
| non-interoperable implementation, automatically download it to millions of
| users and sow confusion in the marketplace by flooding it with millions of
| incompatible documents. It all depends on your goals. Voluntary standards do
| not force, or prevent, one approach or another.
|
| To wrap this up, I stand on the table of interoperability results in the
| previous post. SP2 has reduced the level of interoperability among ODF
| spreadsheets, by failing to produce conforming ODF documents, and failing to
| take note of the spreadsheet formula conventions that had been adopted by all
| of the other vendors and which are working their way through OASIS as a
| standard.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/05/follow-up-on-excel-2007-sp2s-odf.html
Microsoft now attempts to sabotage ODF
,----[ Quote ]
| - Ask the ODF Alliance to publish a press release recommending not using
| the "Save as ODF" facility included MS Office SP2, due to the bad quality of
| the produced ODF files.
|
| [...]
|
| - Start a petition asking Microsoft to make MS Office SP2 unavailable until
| the design flaws in the product have been corrected.
|
| We must make it clear to Microsoft that their attitude is not acceptable, and
| force them to behave in a better way.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-154383/microsoft-now-attempts-to-sabotage-odf
Engage, embrace, extinguish
,----[ Quote ]
| Today we have OpenOffice.org 3.1 gets released. In the meantime, the
| proprietary product from Redmond claims to be able to wirte ODF format, but
| fails. Pity. Money corrupts, but MS Tax Dollars corrupts absolutely.
`----
http://harishpillay.livejournal.com/157565.html
Microsoft now attempt to fragment ODF
,----[ Quote ]
| One of the first articles published about SP2 and for which I call the
| attention of everyone is from Rob Weir, chair of the OASIS ODF TC (group that
| develops the ODF, to which I belong). It is simply scary to see what Office
| 2007 does with existing ODF spreadsheets.
|
| The technical details are all on Rob’s blog, but in summary, when opening an
| ODF spreadsheet (.ods file) using Office 2007, it simply removes all existing
| formulas without telling anything to the user, leaving only the values in
| cells (results of formulas evaluation, previously stored in the document). If
| a user wants to test the ODF support in Office, and without giving due
| attention, save an existing spreadsheet, will overwrite the document removing
| all the formulas (as if you were writing a table). I saw absurdities in life,
| but nothing compared to this.
`----
http://homembit.com/2009/05/microsoft-now-attempt-to-fragment-odf.html
OpenDocument Format: The Standard for Office Documents
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/05/opendocument-format-standard-for-office.html
A Few Facts As Antidote Against Microsoft's anti-ODF FUD Campaign
,----[ Quote ]
| The best antidote against FUD is facts. FUD only works when people don't know
| any better. So, given some recent anti-ODF FUD in the air, I thought it would
| be useful to provide some facts.
|
| First, I'd like to show you who voted Yes to approve OpenDocument v1.1 as an
| OASIS Standard in January of 2007. ODF v1.2 is already being adopted by some
| now, of course, as development has continued, but Microsoft chose to stick
| with v1.1, so let's do the same. I think you'll find the list dispositive as
| to who is sincere in this picture. Next time you read some criticism of ODF,
| then, you can just take a look at the list and ask yourself what it tells
| you. And if you are a technical person, here's ODF v1.1, so you can compare
| any claims of deficiencies. Here's Groklaw's chronicle of the OOXML/ODF saga,
| where you can find many resources, including a chronology of events from 2005
| to the present.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009050712493241
Microsoft vs. ODF: arrogance on display
,----[ Quote ]
| Note to Microsoft: This is not how standards work. Frankly, if you don’t
| intend to support ODF properly, you may as well not support it at all. What
| your product writes isn’t ODF. When your product reads ODF, it silently
| discards important parts of the data. (Yes, the formulas in spreadsheets are
| important. That’s the whole purpose of a spreadsheet programme! Otherwise we
| may as well be using pencil, paper, and calculators.)
`----
http://www.shawnkquinn.com/2009/05/microsoft-vs-odf-arrogance-on-display/
Should we waterboard Rob Weir? And other crucial questions…
,----[ Quote ]
| These are very interesting times for ODF and Open Standards. Microsoft’s
| latest outrage by Gray Knowlton does at least show that if there’s a company
| who practices the « Do as I say, not as I do », it’s Microsoft. Gray Knowlton
| is now calling for Rob Weir, chair of the ODF Technical Committee at the
| OASIS Consortium to resign. I understand Gray. Gray is the Product Manager of
| Microsoft Office at Microsoft. Which means he is ultimately to blame for the
| lousy job Microsoft engineers have done in implementing ODF inside Microsoft
| Office. Gray is in the front line, and you can bet he’s having to answer some
| tough calls from customers right now. Gray does not have to ride the smooth «
| try Seven after Vista » wave; he has to go through the clutter that
| Microsoft’s big heads have created by thinking: What if we had ODF wrecked
| inside Office and get the world to believe that it’s not our fault? That’s
| Gray’s problem. And this is how we come to the waterboarding of Rob. But I
| digress.
|
| [...]
|
| Bad, bad, evil Rob. Not only he didn’t go to your grand astroturfing party,
| but he apparently forgot to mention SP2 at the coffee machine ten times in a
| rowthe day you released it. That must be depressing. Anyway; talking about
| missing the chance to provide your input before things happen: How come
| Microsoft left the OASIS ODF TC in 2003?
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2009/05/08/should-we-waterboard-rob-weir-and-other-crucial-questions/
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Message-ID: <3535922.x...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Beyond Hype of Apple Lie Defective Products
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:40:02 +0000
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Apple blames plastic for phone discolouration
,----[ Quote ]
| These questions, and many others, have not been answered by the Apple press
| office. We guess it will stick to this line until a black phone discolours or
| catches fire.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1433252/apple-blames-plastic-phone-discolouration
Apple is about marketing. Time to find out truths, too.
Recent:
iPhone suffers as Android buoys Linux cause
,----[ Quote ]
| Google's open mobile OS platform Android is buoying the fortunes of
| Linux-powered smartphones. The news for Apple's iPhone, however, is not so
| good.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-278279.html
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Message-Id: <4108415.A...@schestowitz.com>
From: Roy Schestowitz <newsg...@schestowitz.com>
Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Windows Still Kills British Patients
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:42:34 +0000
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NHS hospitals struggle to hold back the malware tide
,----[ Quote ]
| Malware infection problems at NHS hospitals are a more serious problem than
| isolated reports of infestation might suggest, according to an investigation
| by More4 News.
|
| Last November an infection by the MyTob worm created huge administrative
| headaches at three London hospitals - Barts, the Royal London and the London
| Chest Hospital - that are part of the same NHS Trust. The infection forced
| the hospitals to briefly reroute ambulances and disrupted hospital
| administration while the infection was being contained. Some medical staff
| had to resort to pen and paper backup systems.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/nhs_malware/
Hijacked Twitter accounts spread Koobface worm
,----[ Quote ]
| The Koobface worm, which previously infected users of Facebook and MySpace,
| is spreading among users of micro-blogging website Twitter.
|
| The scale of the attack is unclear but serious enough for Twitter to issue a
| warning on Friday morning, via the service's status page. Koobface-related
| activity has been detected on Twitter before, but the latest assault has
| provoked a more concerted response from the micro-blogging service, including
| plans to temporarily suspend compromised accounts.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/twitter_koobface_spread/
Windows makes cyberwar:
North Korea a suspect in cyber attacks in US
http://ap.onlineathens.com/pstories/world/20090708/461205173.shtml
Related:
French hospital migrates to OpenOffice.org
,----[ Quote ]
| According to this French article, the French hospital of Thiers is migrating
| its 150 desktops to OpenOffice.org in order to spend money on training
| instead of licences.
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/french_hospital_migrates_to_openoffice
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End of Cola Digest
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| News Digester |