What a tangled Web we weave

Patents, it seems, are something to come back to time and again.

At the end of 2006, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer indicated that Microsoft thought Linux was infringing on their intellectual property rights. If this issue sounds familiar, it is because I talked about the idea of who owns what and how open source faces difficulties because different non-open source companies own different parts of things that other people need to use, a few weeks ago.

Now the issue between Microsoft and Linux has flared up again. And Microsoft says that it is USERS of Linux and open source that are infringing patents. The problem is that Microsoft still is not saying which patents are being violated. So basically open-sourcers are being told that they are stealing, but are not being told what they are stealing… so how can it be fixed?

If you are told that there is some ingredient in a cake that is illegally used but you are not told what it is… do you abandon the whole cake? What if it’s the half teaspoon of baking powder that you used that could be replaced by beaten egg or self-raising flour? IT executives said they so far have no plans to throw out their cakes.

Microsoft has however, offered a Patent Pledge for Open Source Developers. But that doesn’t really even explain why they are bringing up the issue with Linux.

When I first delved into the topic of patents, I thought it might tend towards the philosophical and ethical aspects of open source development. But with accusations and lawsuits in the picture, it seems to be a lot more about greed and protecting territory than about broader right and wrong.