[oclug] Microsoft Lawsuits

[Adrian Irving-Beer]

On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 06:06:24PM -0500, Paul Godin wrote:

> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/18/ballmer_linux_lawsuits/
>
> Sorry about this but I think this is serious and will now drop all
> my Linux distributions, Mandrake, Suse, RedHat, Slackware and all. I
> mean, if Steve says he's mad and going after us then I must fear it
> is true....NOT....

IANAL, but the 'patent violations costing the customer' thing seems
like a crock from the start.  I mean, even if every single line of
code in Linux were, say, Microsoft property, it's been released
under the GPL.

Everyone who uses it is doing so in accordance with the license, so it
seems to me the only person you could legally sue would be the person
who illegally relicensed your code, and those who continue to use it
even after it's been 'recalled'.  Right?

In any case, if you ask me, Microsoft should be *promoting* free
software across the world.  I mean, they're always moaning about how
piracy is wrong and costs them money.  You can't pirate free software,
so they'd decrease losses *and* make the world a more moral place! ;)
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