Text 16277, 64 rader
Skriven 2007-02-19 08:31:38 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft lied about Novell deal
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From: mike <mike@barkto.com>

It *was* about the intellectual property, and not interoperability (as
Microsoft previously asserted), after all.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=265

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The same week that Microsoft issued a press release providing further details
about some of the technological advances that will result from the November
2006 technology agreement between Novell and Microsoft, Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer told Wall Street what he really thinks the deal means to Microsoft.

During a forecast update meeting for financial analysts and shareholders on
February 15, Ballmer reiterated that, to him, the deal is more about Microsoft
exerting intellectual property (IP) pressure on Novell than anything else.

Ballmer didn't talk up technological cross-collaboration. He didn't mention
helping customers with interoperability challenges. He didn't mention new sales
opportunities. Instead, he said:


"The deal that we announced at the end of last year with Novell I consider to
be very important. It demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property
even in the Open Source world. I would not anticipate that we make a huge
additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly
establishes that Open Source is not free and Open Source will have to respect
intellectual property rights of others just as any other competitor will."



Ballmer has riled the Novell management team more than once by hinting that
Microsoft believes that Novell and other open-source vendors are violating
Microsoft patents.

(This past weekend, in an interview with LinuxWorld, former Novell employee and
lead Samba developer Jeremy Allison, when asked about supposed Microsoft
threats over alleged open-source patent violations, said the rumors were true.


"I have had people come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they
had been threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had
essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free software that
they were using, which they then cannot redistribute. I think that would be the
restriction. I would have to look quite carefully. So, essentially that’s not
allowed. But they’re not telling anyone about it. They’re completely doing it
off the record," Allison said.)


Until customers come forward and admit these Microsoft threats, it's gong to be
tough to prove Allison's contention.

But it isn't difficult to see that Microsoft's brass sees the Microsoft-Novell
deal as being, above all else, about setting a precedent by getting an
open-source vendor to pay royalties for IP.
===


Microsoft lies so much, sometimes I wonder if they know how to tell the truth?

 /m

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