p2pnet news | Open Source:- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “gave a talk at a company event in the UK last week saying that Red Hat customers need to pay Microsoft for its beloved IP, whatever it may consist of,” says Groklaw, quoting him as saying:

People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us.

“OK,” says Groklaw, “How about this?”

How about Microsoft has an obligation to reveal its patents or whatever its “intellectual property” is first? How’s that? “Intellectual property” doesn’t mean anything under the law, unless you specify. So, patents? Copyrights? What? That was SCO’s downfall, the refusal or inability to specify.

The post goes goes on that Ballmer is also supposed to have said he hopes that when reforming patent law people don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater and get rid of software patents altogether.

But, “Actually, that sounds like a great idea,” says Groklaw.

“Let’s do.”

Then, in an update, “It’s true, only it’s actually worse. Ballmer threatens to destroy all FOSS with patents, not just Red Hat.”

He —-

—- has just clearly outlined how Microsoft intends to extinguish Linux as we know it. Microsoft knows full well that in any intellectual property regime based on software patents, particularly when used as weapons against innovation to protect and reward the old, no one can compete with Microsoft. They have all the money. FOSS is written by individuals who don’t have a pile of gold under the bed to go to court and get a court judgment or pay “a big check”. Ballmer of course knows that.

So this is the anticompetitive plan, under the guise of everyone having to play by the same rules.

Adds Groklaw:

I get why Microsoft wants what it wants. They don’t want to die off like an aged and irrelevant elephant. But I don’t want to use their software ever again as long as I live. I hate it. It doesn’t work. It spies on me. It’s a malware magnet. It’s slow. It doesn’t multitask the way I’m used to. It takes over my computer in ways I can’t prevent, and the worst is, when something goes wrong, there’s nothing you can do about it without worrying about stepping on some of their stupid IP. It is the exact opposite of FOSS, where none of that happens.

FOSS can’t survive in an IP regime such as Ballmer has laid before our eyes. The developers give their code away. How can they pay for patent licenses? That’s the point, obviously. But I don’t want FOSS to be choked to death, so it’s time to seriously figure out how to get software and patents to get a divorce. Reform isn’t going to work, if a monopoly player is willing to misuse patents as an anticompetitive weapon. It raises antitrust issues, of course, but ideally patents need to be taken off the software table altogether. This little speech is the clearest and most obvious proof that they are being used now not for innovation, but to crush it.

I remember Sam Ramji in the video from the Olliance Think Tank in March, when he tried to make us believe that Ballmer understood that his patent saber rattling remarks in November were “counterproductive”. You just can’t trust what Microsoft folks tell you, no matter how nice they may seem or be. Because Ballmer hasn’t stopped. He’s still saying the same things. So did he *really* realize his remarks were counterproductive? Obviously not. So please don’t anyone tell me about the new Microsoft and how they are moving toward openness. They are moving toward destroying FOSS, although outsourcing some of it. That’s it.

Slashdot it!

Also See:
Groklaw – Microsoft’s Ballmer Reportedly Threatens Red Hat, October 8, 2007

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