14 DAY TRIAL // Linux users are crowding to the Microsoft legal slaughter, as Windows users never did when buying Windows Vista. Last week, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and Vice President of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez alleged that free and open source software was infringing on no less than 235 Microsoft patents. However, Linux users are by no means passive to Microsoft's intellectual violation claims, and are noworiginally inviting Microsoft to debut legal action against them on the "Sue me first, Microsoft" wiki page.
"Welcome to our list of names of people who are challenging Microsoft to sue them right now to prove that it has valid patent claims against Free Open Source Software. Remember, it would be helpful if you could add your email address and your distro, and the purpose for which you are using GNU/Linux. If you are just using some other Free Open Source Software, such as OpenOffice.org or Audacity running on Windows, please let us know that, too. Thanks!" reads the invitation to join other Linux users in getting sued by the Redmond Company.
At the time of this article 303 Linux supporters had signed their names on the "Sue me first Microsoft list of names" and are now patiently waiting for Microsoft's lawsuit. All the people that have signed up so far have proudly listed the versions and Linux distributions they are using, along with any other open source or free solutions, and of course along with snappy and ironical comments.
In the wake of the initial patent violation allegations, Microsoft has stepped back and revealed that it will not pursue legal action against either users or technology providers. "Gartner believes that Microsoft will not seek to litigate patent claims against users. Instead, we think the company will attempt to pressure technology providers to come to the table and negotiate an equitable licensing or royalty arrangement in instances where Microsoft can prove its claims of infringement. We believe Microsoft's public announcement of these patent infringement allegations is an attempt to increase pressure on technology providers to accept patent agreements with Microsoft. The company has had some limited success in building such agreements with Novell and a number of other providers (most recently Samsung)," revealed a group of Gartner analysts.