Michele Mor wrote: > In my opinion Microsoft is simply trying to scare companies who want > to switch to linux and/or alternative software (Openoffice - MySQL?). > > Agree with Andy, the worst could be that we'll have another SCO.
The whole thing with SCO will probably turn out to be a blessing. The companies that decided not to take chances and pay SCO money will be looking back at the fiasco, the lack of any credible list of infringements, and likely conclude that if they are to pay royalties to anyone now they will want proof that they are justified. They also probably won't wait to be asked to pay royalties; they'll be asking now: on what basis do you make these claims, Mr Microsoft? MS will need to provide details of the patents that allegedly are being infringed, or very quickly it will look like a silly lawyers game and credibility will be lost. Once (or if ever!) there is a proper list it can be looked at properly. Some, like the 2000 patent which apparently covers 1980's sudo, will be laughed at, but I think it would be wise on our side of the fence not to assume all of them will be so trivial. Ultimately, by making threats (and MS are not overtly doing that yet, although its implied) and never carrying them out, it will lose them credibility where they might have a legitimate (in legal terms anyway) case elsewhere. In any case, I doubt that many people will be ditching OpenOffice in favour of a dodgy MS Office BitTorrent download (it would seem a bit silly anyway), and faced with the option of paying £00's for MS products they'll just wait and see what happens instead. Large corporates with large legal teams will do what they always do: engage in legal games. All in all nothing much will change, but it gives us a new reason to hate MS, which would only be a good thing if there weren't enough already. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
