“Shall we play a game?”
The Fortune magazine article “Microsoft takes on the free world” has gotten a lot of press today. It’s a long article that outlines generally the history of the free and open-source software movement and in particular how Microsoft is readying for patent claims against Linux. The complete article is well-written and full of details, but I’ll attempt to sum it up for you.
Microsoft claims that Linux infringes 235 of its patents and wants royalties for what it sees as its intellectual property. The Free Software Foundation (FSF), started by Richard Stallman, wrote and maintains the GNU General Public License (GPL) which applies to Linux. The GPL requires that the software be entirely free (making royalty payments to Microsoft problematic), that the source code be open to the public and free to reuse, and, most importantly, that any software that uses GPL code also follow the same GPL terms.
Recently, Microsoft has been cutting deals with Novell and some corporate Linux customers to license their patents, in other words, taking payments in return for not suing when the Linux lawsuits start while simultaneously bolstering Microsoft’s case for patent claims. (“If Novell agreed with us about infringements, our claims must be true.”) In their deal with Novell, Microsoft snuck around the GPL terms by calling the royalty/license payments something else and also bought “coupons” from Novell so that Microsoft could resell Novell’s Linux.
In response, the FSF is modifying the GPL to prevent such tactics and upped the ante significantly by informing Microsoft that the Novell coupons make them a Linux distributor and subject to all the terms of the GPL. Plus, the new GPL terms will prevent GPL software distributors from bringing patent suits. The new provisions will take effect in July. The article notes that recent events seem “to have taken us a step closer to patent Armageddon”. The results could seriously damage both Microsoft and free software, especially if developers and businesses wait for the smoke to clear or head in less turbulent directions.
Throughout the article, the current stand-off between Microsoft and the Free Software Foundation is described in the direst of terms. “It’s a cold war, and what keeps the peace is the threat of mutually assured destruction: patent Armageddon – an unending series of suits and countersuits that would hobble the industry and its customers.” Perhaps because it is also acronym heavy (FOSS, FSF, OIN, OSDL, GNU, GPL), it brought to my mind W.O.P.R. (aka Joshua), the computer from the movie War Games.
Joshua: “Shall we play a game?”
David: “Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War.”
If the geeks at Microsoft and the FSF remember it too, maybe they will recall Joshua’s revelation at the end of the movie.
