Linux boosters give a shrug to Amazon's Microsoft patent deal |
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Linux boosters give a shrug to Amazon's Microsoft patent deal
Supporters of the open-source Linux operating system are responding with indifference to last night's news that Amazon will pay Microsoft an undisclosed sum in a patent deal that covers the e-commerce company's use of technologies including Linux servers, and open-source components of its Kindle e-reader device.
The implication of the deal is that Amazon is paying Microsoft to use Linux, and thereby supporting Microsoft's longstanding and controversial contention that Linux and other open-source technologies violate its patents. But Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, says the weird part is the way Microsoft went out of its way to single out open-source technologies in its statement about the deal.
"Large companies take out patent cross-licensing deals all the time. It looks like they licensed each others' entire portfolios," said Zemlin via phone. "The only thing that looks pretty suspect here is the fact that they go to great lengths to cite open-source as somehow distinct technology from anything else. That seems like a pretty calculated way to stir up innuendo and implication. That's obviously not productive."
Zemlin expands on those thoughts in this blog post.
Notably, the news release announcing the deal was issued by Microsoft, without any statement from Amazon, which declined to comment when we contacted the company last night.
Writes "PJ" of Groklaw: "Amazon isn't a Linux company, and it sells a hardware device. And I gather Microsoft's MO is to make any company signing up with them in a patent cross licensing deal sign an NDA, so only Microsoft speaks in public, then they put out a press release which makes claims no one can check or verify, wave their arms about Linux, then go on to the next victim. Unless they show some details, it means absolutely nothing to me, except that Microsoft is very good at marketing (fear, uncertainty and doubt.)"
For a completely different take, see Dana Blankenhorn's post on ZDNet, which makes the case that Microsoft's licensing deals are part of an effort to buy "patent peace for our time."
Previously: Microsoft, Amazon strike patent deal covering Kindle and Linux
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