Get your copy of M$ Word while you still can
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by gewg_
(3939 messages posted)
The story so far:
After September 11, 2001, Federal law enforcement agencies needed a way
to parse huge piles of documents to extract the terrorism-looking stuff.
A company called i4i came up with a way to do this.
They developed an app and received a patent for their technique.
Microsoft (being fully aware of i4i) knew the technique was patented
but decided to include it in M$ Word without paying royalties.
(This is called "willful infringement" and carries an additional stigma.)
NOTE: There is a whole separate story re: ISO and M$'s "OOXML"
which is so corrupt that it makes this story look like Mary Poppins.
http://google.com/search?q=defectivebydesign+OOXML+ISO
WRT M$ Word documents, i4i's market for their tool went to zero
and they filed a patent infringement suit against M$.
At this point, M$ *could* have treated i4i as they would like to be treated
by licensing the technology and settling up their debt. **M$ refused**.
The suit was filed in the Federal Court in Eastern Texas
(which is infamously friendly to "intellectual property" plaintiffs).
A verdict in the case was rendered recently against M$ with a fine of $200M.
During the trial, M$'s lawyers compared i4i's lawsuit to gov't bailouts.
The judge told them to discontinue that tactic. They persisted.
When rendering the verdict, the judge added $40M (out of M$'s pocket)
for the contempt that M$'s lawyers showed him.
He also added $50M for the willful infringement of M$'s corporate officers
for a total of $290M (less than 2 day's earnings for M$ in 2008).
To remedy the actions that brought about the case,
the judge ordered (effective 60 days hence)
that M$ will have to stop shipping infringing versions of M$ Word.
This means that M$ will have to pull the disks and stop all downloads;
the plug-ins available for previous versions must be discontinued as well.
Computer vendors will also have to stop installing M$ Word.
In order to sell M$ Word after that,
M$ will have to remove the feature or arrange licencing terms for it.
In its usual "we're above the law" way,
Microsoft has filed an "emergency motion" to continue shipping their products.
A decision hasn't been rendered. (I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.)
On a related note, i4i has stated that the XML techniques in OpenOffice.org
do *NOT* violate their patent.
(OpenOffice is Free Software.)
...and a final item from me: SOFTWARE
PATENTS SUCK
(as do most "intellectual property" laws these days).
With any luck, the US Supreme Court will uphold the Bilski verdict
(a completely different case from i4i's)
cache
of http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=6466
and we'll be done with most of this nonsense.
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 | Get your copy of M$ Word while you still can (gewg_: Tue, Aug 18, 2009, 5:38 pm) |
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