[ Thanks to Brendan Scott for this
link. ]
“On Monday, May 14, Fortune magazine ran an article by Roger
Parloff titled ‘Microsoft takes on the free world.’ The title
apparently alluding to Microsoft throwing down the software patent
gauntlet at the feet of the entire free and open source software
community. If the title weren’t enough, the article itself is
filled with markers of impeding doom. There is ‘a shadow’ hanging
over Linux, cast by the ‘behemoth’ Microsoft. We are told that ‘If
the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore.’
Microsoft has now ‘for the first time’ revealed the number of
patents it’s alleging and it’s a ‘breathtaking’ ‘overwhelming’
number. Quoting Eben Moglen in response the article says it’s ‘a
tinderbox’ on which a ‘war’ will be fought and ‘Waterloo’ is
waiting for someone. Microsoft tried to build a bridge to the free
software world, but it has failed and we are all one step closer
now to ‘patent Armageddon.’ Even the subtitle has an implicit
threat aimed at the reader (‘users like you, maybe’).“This article has been written with a great deal of skill. It
has painted the scenario in a dramatic manner and one which
highlights some dire consequences. It even ends on an enigmatic
phone call to Mr Ballmer, in which he ominously declines to cross a
bridge (that would be the ‘sue your customers’ bridge, not the
One-Step-Closer-to-Patent-Armageddon bridge–that’s been crossed
already)…”
Complete Story (PDF File)