Microsoft takes on the free world reports: “Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users.” None of this is surprising; this is the predictable outcome of having state-granted monopolies on information (patents and copyrights). The opponents include “free software” advocates like Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen, both involved with the Free Software Foundation. As far as I know, neither Stallman nor Moglen oppose patent and copyright law as such (if this is untrue, I’d like to know)--but rather want to limit patent and copyright “abuse”. In fact as far as I understand it, the GNU license advocated by the FSF relies on copyright, since a license is just permission granted under a copyright. As long as there is either copyright or patent law, we can expect problems such as that reported above to plague the free flow of ideas and information. I’m glad Stallman and Moglen are pushing in the right direction, but until they oppose both patent and copyright law root and branch, they are failing to get at the cause of the problem.
Microsoft, Patents, and Open Source Software
