[mdlug] Vista DRM hurts Linux?

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Michael S. Mikowski

> Aaron, I'm with Ray on this.  For example, MS has made noise 
> /for years/ about patent infringement by OSS on MS software.
> Why, then, haven't they pursued /any/ direct legal action?*
> 
> Because the dirty little secret might be that MS 'proprietary' software 
> probably contains hundreds of bits of OSS code.

 Patent and copyright infringement are very different things, but OSS
groups have been gathering some defensive patents lately, and companies
that make money off of Linux (like IBM) have *very* large patent portfolios.
Initiating serious patent infringement procedures against Linux would run
the danger of initiating a "nuclear patent war".

>  It is already widely 
> acknowledged, for example, that nt/2000/xp uses the BSD 
> TCP/IP stack.

 Well, that's not quite true. They *did*, from Windows 95 on, but my
understanding is that by Vista the stack's been completely rewritten.
(Of course, that introduces its own problems; Microsoft has never made
something remotely secure or correct until at least the third iteration,
so...)

 And the BSD license allows that. What's really funny is that Microsoft
actually *bought* a copy of the BSD stack when they could have had it
for free!

 http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/6/19/05641/7357

 (Note that this claims that even in NT there was a substantial
rewrite of the BSD stack...)

> So their best defense is Steve Balmer offensively frothing at 
> the mouth about what MS /might/ do (but of course never will).

 FUD, basically. Not a long-term effective strategy, and the 'Halloween
Documents' even acknowledge this.

> * disregard the cloak and dagger funding scheme for SCO; that was never 
> supposed to be discovered.  Besides, the misdirection worked in that 
> the mainstream press never really picked up on it.

 And what little positive (from Microsoft's perspective) effect it's had
has long since evaporated, and Linux is in a far stronger position now
than it was. SCO's case has totally imploded and they haven't found
*anything* even remotely questionable. And there are new procedures in
place to help prevent anything questionable from getting in in the future.
*And* SCO's imminent corporate death - their reduction to a smoking
crater - will give other companies major reservations about pursuing
such paths in the future.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                             (313) 227-2317

   "Windows: The OS that makes you delete things to make them work."
                           Sinister Midget
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