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Foss Does It Help or Does It Hurt

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Submitted By jbk0624
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FOSS has it helped or has it hurt?

Bonita Jones-Bey

Class IT 302
Professor Emerenini
July 26, 2013

Upon my undertaking of this assignment I wasn’t aware of the in-depth concept of Free and Open-Source Software. I had very little understanding of how or why a patent would be needed or just how much controversy came with this ideology. So to be able to understand my assignment I had to understand what the issues were and get a clearer conception of business patents and monopolizing the market and the draw backs and cons.( Sean Michael Kerner ) What is Free Open-Source Software?
Free is software at no cost and open source software is software that is liberally licensed by OSI that uses an open source list of open source licenses, that grant users the right to use and re-use, copy, study, modify, and improve its design through the availability of its source code, rather than having to purchase software or ask permission. The Free Software Foundation, an organization just for this type of software and they ensure that users have availability at completely no cost even when some companies try otherwise. This software’s focuses on the perceived strengths of its peer-to-peer development model and is used by many software packages. Students get to enjoy these software’s for modification and design capabilities, they create games redesign programs and a host of other things they would be not be allotted to change due to copyright laws .(cite: terrybollinger.com)

Microsoft alleged patent violations by FOSS in 2006.

According to the research I found the industry was not very frayed by Microsoft's claims. “Its master legal strategist by the name of Eben Moglen, was longtime counsel to the Free Software Foundation and the head of the Software Freedom Law Center, which counseled FOSS on how to protect themselves from patent aggression”. (Being a Law professor he was able to make the whole matter less complicated for the novice researcher like me. Microsoft may have made the most noise but it didn’t really gain what they sought after which was proprietary rights to software for profit or to gain profit from users who had the software. This law professor “contends that software is really just a mathematical algorithm and, as such, is not patentable nor can it be claimed by one enmity solely. The fact that Microsoft might possess many relevant patents doesn't impress him.” Patents can be invalidated in court on numerous grounds, he observes. Others can easily be "invented around." Still others might be valid, yet not infringed under the particular circumstances.
Through all of it the solution of “you don’t sue me and I won’t sue you” seems to have been the middle ground of keeping the peace and the best option, at the same time courts started signaling that software could be patented after all so companies began stocking up on software patents, with traditional hardware outfits like IBM leading the way, as they were prepared with staffs of patent attorneys at their disposal where Microsoft came late to the race, by taking the third choice, which was to begin licensing its patents to other companies in exchange for either royalties or access to their patents (a "cross-licensing" deal). In December 2003, Microsoft's new licensing unit opened for business, and soon the company had signed cross-licensing pacts with several companies. ( Roger Parloff, Fortune senior editor)
What has changed since the action taken by Microsoft?
Novell and Microsoft were able to work out a highly controversial - deal. Microsoft and Novell agreed not to sue each other's customers for patent infringement, because it's something that the GPL does not address. Novell agreed to give Microsoft a percentage of all its Linux revenue through 2011 (or a minimum of $40 million).
Microsoft agreed to pay Novell $240 million for "coupons" that it could then resell to customers (theoretically for a profit), who would, in turn, trade them in for subscriptions to Novell's Linux server software. In addition, Microsoft gave Novell another $108 million as a "balancing payment" in connection with the patent part of the deal. Microsoft and Novell both vow to proceed with their deal as planned. Microsoft claims that its mere distribution of coupons won't make it subject to the GPL.
In the first portion of the agreement, such marquee clients as Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, AIG Technologies, HSBC, Wal-Mart, Dell and Reed Elsevier have all acquired Novell Linux coupons from Microsoft. Microsoft had hoped that the Novell deal would become a model it could use to collect patent royalties from other distributors of free software but not the case. In that respect, its "bridge" to the free world appears to have failed. That, in turn, seems to have taken us a step closer to patent Armageddon some useless some very well needed and some are still yet to be seen. The object is to protect companies and the creators of some of our greatest products and software. I am grateful to have access to the ones I have so thanks very much FOSS, you are appreciated.. ( Roger Parloff, Fortune senior editor)

Cites: www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-free...violates...patents/436money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/.../100033867 www.internetnews.com/.../Microsoft+Open+Source+Infringes+on+235+P
www.softwarwww.itbusinessedge.com/.../microsoft-linux-oss-and-the-235-patent-viol...‎efreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html‎

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