Has Microsoft violated the GPL?

It would be rather funny if, after all the brouhaha Microsoft has made recently about patent violations, the company is found to be violating the one thing which it passionately hates – the existing General Public Licence.

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Yet that is not a far-fetched conclusion – not after the deal that Dell cut with Microsoft recently. You see, as a result of striking this deal, Microsoft has effectively become a Linux distributor. It gets SUSE Linux licences from Novell and distributes them to Dell.

The GPLv2, the existing version of the GPL that is, stipulates that if a person or company distributes software that is under the GPL, then that person or company is also bound by the terms of the same licence.

In other words, with regard to the Linux it is distributing, Microsoft has to abide by the GPL. This wouldn’t be a welcome thing to hear back in Redmond, but them’s the facts.

Hence, in the unlikely event that there is any of Microsoft’s IP in the Linux distribution which it is distributing, then that IP also comes under the GPL. In other words, it is available for nothing.

Another thought. How can a company know which patent or patents it is violating unless the accuser is specific? And if the accuser refuses to be specific, would it not be the case that patent infringement is actually being encouraged? And if infringement is being encouraged, then on what grounds does the accuser sue?

It’s clear that Microsoft does not want to be specific because developers would immediately go back to their keyboards and write code that worked around the patents which are claimed as being violated.

There are more angles to this can of worms which Steve “Monkey Boy” Ballmer and Horacio Guttierrez have opened. Let’s assume that a patent suit is filed the other way around – for example, company A sues Microsoft, claiming that the Windows maker has violated its (company A’s) patents. What happens then?

I asked a patent expert about this; Dan Ravicher is a fresh-faced young New Yorker, head of the Public Patent Foundation, and a patent lawyer to boot. He’s also one of the legal fraternity who believes that there is a bit more to life than money.

Says Ravicher: “Well, (company A) would have to get the other company to participate in negotiations and then propose the opening of their source code as a wayof settling the dispute.  In that way – through private negotiation – it is (and virtually anything is) possible.”

Into this increasingly complicated mix, throw in the fact that Novell recently admitted that it had looked at Microsoft’s IP as part of the infamous November 2 deal. Does this mean that contributions from Novell to Linux and other FOSS projects should be regarded with suspicion?

Ravicher says there may possibly be no implications for Novell. “It appears from this report that Novell was allowed to look at Microsoft’s code for technical reasons related to the possibility of building interoperability, not legal reasons related to possible infringement of third party rights.”

But there is a catch. “While code licensed by Novell under an open source licence is formally as available as any other open source code, since they are free to incorporate elements that may infringe Microsoft patents, but not pass on a licence to those patents to persons other than their customers, third party developers should be mindful that such code may subject them and their distributees to risk of liability to which Novell is not exposed,” Ravicher says.

“However, GPLv3 may end up containing a clause that addresses this situation. The first draft of GPLv3 did, in that it required distributors of GPLv3′d code to pass on the same protections from patents that they have to all their distributees. However, that clause was altered in the second draft of v3 and we’ll have to see what ends up being in the final version.”

Now all this stuff is good and logical but then it won’t necessarily play out this way. Logic isn’t of much use in the US of A, lobbying and political connections make things happen. So expect a lot of the latter and very little of the former. Either way, this battle has just begun. May 14, 2007, was a red letter for Microsoft. On that day, it may well have put its foot too far inside its mouth to avoid choking.

Facing the full horror of Windows Vista

So far, Transit has been using Vista Business full-time for a fortnight. And so far, we’ve found nothing that works better than in Windows XP, dozens of things that are annoyingly different without being a functional improvement, and several things that work at best intermittently and at worst not at all. On the whole, we wish we’d never moved.
We should point out at the start that we migrated to Windows Vista under supposedly optimal circumstances. We waited for a few weeks before even thinking about it, so that we’d avoid any early release showstopper bugs. We purchased a machine from a prominent manufacturer (Lenovo) with Vista pre-installed, so we could avoid the upgrade nightmares that have plagued everyone else we know who’s been forced to shift to Vista. (OK, that’s not entirely true; a handful of Microsoft employees have told us their Vista migration was trouble-free. You can decide for yourself how valid that testimony is.) And we’ve deliberately kept the installed software on the machine to a minimum, to minimise the chance of an incompatible application blowout.

We’re writing this article on the Vista machine, so a bare minimum of functionality has, arguably, been achieved. But that is, quite literally, the nicest thing we can say about Microsoft’s newest operating system.

For starters, it’s hideously slow — notably slower than our previous machine, despite the fact that the new model has twice as much memory and a much faster processor. This isn’t just delays caused by the User Account Control system, annoying as it is; even basic tasks like opening documents and launching applications are notably slower.

We’d hoped that our new system would boot faster than its predecessor, but in fact it takes even longer, whether or not it manages to connect to any networks. Applications are also crashing more often than on our XP machine, and Office 2007 — supposedly a flagship application for Vista — is the most frequent culprit.

The lack of anything approaching basic network functionality is our biggest complaint. We’ve written before about how direct Ethernet networking caused the machine to crash unpredictably. We’ve since discovered that Vista is incapable of communicating with one of our Linksys wireless routers, even though the model in question is certified to work on Vista and chats quite happily to numerous other machines.

Multiple phone calls and emails to Microsoft support (which we wouldn’t even be entitled to if we weren’t in the media) have so far failed to resolve the problem in a satisfactory way. We’ll give credit to Microsoft support for trying hard, but if you can’t get basic IP working in 2007, something pretty fundamental is going wrong.

Outside of the basic functionality issues, there are dozens of minor changes that haven’t done anything to improve our productivity. One minor example: for years, we’ve used a basic HTML page stored on our local hard drive as a home page to provide easy one-click access to bookmarks. This turns out to be hopeless under Vista, since Internet Explorer insists on launching any page in a new window because of a security restriction. As such, Vista has managed to convince us to ditch Internet Explorer after nine years and switch to Firefox, which doesn’t indulge in such ridiculous behaviour, and seems to run faster as well.

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Vista certification for the machine also seems meaningless. We can accept, begrudgingly, that some of our favourite applications, like SyncBackSE, are going to generate a ridiculous ‘Did you mean this?’ dialogue every time we run them. But why does Lenovo’s built-in security application, which came preinstalled on the machine, produce the same response?

In a burst of curiosity, we decided to run Microsoft’s Vista Upgrade Advisor, to see if our machine was actually up to the task. The first thing it told us was that we didn’t have enough drive space (apparently, it’s not intelligent enough to realise that Vista is already installed). The second thing it told us was that our display and sound card weren’t certified for Vista. The third thing it told us was that none of the Lenovo utilities on the machine were Vista-ready. So much for certification.

We could go on — about the stupid interface in Windows Explorer, the non-existent search functionality, the arbitrary changes to menu names, even the horrible font choices. But the bottom line is that if we had shares in Microsoft, we’d be demanding changes more extensive than those that came between XP and SP2 to give this dog of a product any chance in the marketplace. That said, we’re not holding our breath.

YouTube is Premier LawsuitTube

 Will anyone give YouTube and Google a break in the Web 2.0 world of user-submitted content? If the latest lawsuit from the English Premier League is anything to go by, the answer is clearly no.

If you thought YouTube was the place to watch Premier League football (soccer) games and highlights because users have uploaded their favorite clips to the world’s most famous and most sued video sharing site, the English Premier League has some bad news for you: they’re suing YouTube to stop the unauthorized sharing of football videos.

Why? Because the rights to TV, radio and Internet rights for the broadcast of live Premier League games and those very cool highlights over the next three years turned out to be a nice little earner, bringing in a whopping £2.7 billion English pounds, a sum to which Google and YouTube contributed precisely zero dollars, pounds, euros or any other currency beyond eyeballs.

The English Premier League would likely contend that they don’t need YouTube’s eyeballs – their matches are already seen in 204 countries by almost half the world’s population at 2.59 billion people.

Given that YouTube is being monetized through the incredible advertising assets of the mighty Google, the fact that YouTube is most likely making money from all those football/soccer video clips caused the English Premier League to not only see red, but to raise the red card through their lawyers.

The English Premier League’s lawsuit said that: “Defendants, which own and operate the Web site YouTube.com, have knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or license to the owners of the intellectual property”.

This brought a swift response from Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, who in a statement said that: “These suits simply misunderstand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which balances the rights of copyright holders against the need to protect Internet communications and content, Walker said, referring to the 1998 U.S. law governing the rights of content owners and Internet service providers. They threaten the way people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression over the Internet”.

YouTube does indeed now have a tool to help content owners combat piracy, but the League’s lawsuit contends that the tool doesn’t always work. On top of that, if infringing content is removed by YouTube, it only takes someone else to upload it again, resulting in a fine merry-go-round for content owners dealing with the ‘Whack-a-mole’ problem.

Clearly, all that whacking is tiring, even hydra-like. Cut off one head, and two more pop up in its place.

The lawsuit comes only months after a similar suit from Viacom who contend that YouTube infringed massively on their copyright content.

The outcome of all these lawsuits is simply unclear. Should content owners win, much of the fun of the Web 2.0 world will simply be illegal. Users could revolt in Digg style, posting content everywhere they can, but that will only enrage content owners further.

Whatever a judge finally decides, it plainly won’t be the end of the story, with appeals and more legal action set to provide no firm answers for years to come.

In the meantime, there’s always the hope that a clever user or company out there will come up with a solution that keeps everyone happy. It might be some revolutionary Web 3.0 development. Or something else no-one has thought of yet.

But in the meantime, there’s plenty of content on YouTube to keep us all occupied. It makes me wonder, when will YouTube start up the Lawsuit channel so its users can keep track of all the video stories surrounding YouTube lawsuits? It’s not as silly as it sounds… is it?

MICROSOFT EYES SEARCH GIANT IN PROPOSED TAKEOVER

Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned. While Microsoft and Yahoo! have held informal deal talks over the years, sources say the latest approach signals an urgency on Microsoft’s part that has up until now been lacking.

The new approach follows an offer Microsoft made to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago, sources said. But Yahoo! spurned the advances of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Wall Street sources put a roughly $50 billion price tag on Yahoo!.

“They’re getting tired of being left at the altar,” said one banking source who has recently had talks with Microsoft. “They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game.”

Part of the reason for that is because Google keeps trumping Microsoft on the deal front, beating out the company on not just DoubleClick, but also for a renewed search advertising pact with AOL in 2005 that Microsoft lusted after.

Moreover, with Google developing Internet-based software that directly competes with Microsoft Office, sources said Microsoft has no choice but to go on the offensive.

“The minute you hear Microsoft start arguing against something on antitrust grounds, you know they are desperate and need to do something big,” said one source.

Sources said Microsoft is working with Goldman Sachs.

News of Microsoft’s latest approach comes as Yahoo!’s new search advertising platform Project Panama is just getting off the ground.

The long-awaited platform posted disappointing first-quarter results, but sources said that was more a function of difficult comparisons to the year-earlier period and less a sign that the system wasn’t working. That said, another quarter or two of similar results and investors might begin renewing calls for a sale or for CEO Terry Semel to step down.

As it stands now, a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! would up the combined companies’ share of the all-important search advertising market to 27 percent against Google’s 65 percent. It would also narrow the gap in overall online ads with Google to just 13 percent.

More importantly, a deal would create what one source described as “the dominant force on the Internet” in terms of eyeballs. That’s an important consideration as more and more content flows online – as the equations goes, eyeballs equal advertising.

Microsoft and Yahoo! also feature complimentary offerings on the content side, with MSN drawing an older audience with its news focus. By contrast, Yahoo! attracts a younger demographic with its entertainment coverage.

Aside from cost savings, a deal would also create opportunities to use Yahoo! content on Microsoft devices, such as making music exclusively provided to Yahoo! Music available on Microsoft’s Xbox game console and Zune music player.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo! declined comment. Microsoft declined comment.

Amazon may offer DRM-free music from major labels

Amazon seems set to open a mainstream online music store as early as next month, and aims to follow the new EMI/Apple model of offering tracks unencumbered with DRM.

The company already sells music from a number of independent labels, but has reportedly approached the majors with a proposal to offer unprotected MP3 tracks from their catalogues.

EMI has already indicated a willingness to provide unprotected tracks in any format a retailer cares to sell, so it would be surprising if a EMI/Amazon deal wasn’t imminent.

One card Amazon could play is going along with the labels’ desire for variable prices (eg, selling new tracks at higher prices than older material), something Apple has so far opposed.
The absence of DRM makes it easier for people to use the same purchased music on their computers, players such as iPods and Zunes, and mobile phones. The iTunes Store has a market share of around 80 percent, making it an attractive target for competitors, especially one that’s done as well in online retail as Amazon.

La guerra ha terminado: Blu-Ray se declara victorioso sobre HD-DVD

Sólo unos pocos meses después de que Blu-Ray y HD DVD se golpeen continuamente, la Asociación de Disco de Blu-Ray tiene la audacia para declarar que Blu-Ray sale victorioso como “el formato de alta definición de DVD de elección”.

En este momento la guerra de los formatos se encuentra en su pico mas alto, con campañas de comunicacion, en las cuales cada uno reclama que esta ganando y para la cual, Blu-Ray parece ser el mas victorioso.

“El éxito del disco de Blu-Ray es inaudito,” dijo Andy Parsons, jefe de Blu-Ray para USA. “Consumidores han votado con sus billeteras”.

Leyendo rápidamente la última propaganda que sale de cada lado, aquí está el estado actual del juego;

- Blu-Ray ha anunciado “casi 170 títulos de película y música”, mientras HD DVD ha anunciado “más de 300 títulos adicionales de película que estarán disponibles este año, para un suma esperado de más de 600 títulos mundiales”.

- HD DVD dice haber vendido”más de 175.000 reproductores de HD-DVD en USA” mientras Blu-Ray insiste “más de un millión de Sony Playstation 3, que representa una unidad de Disco de Blu-Ray, fue enviada a los Estados Unidos en 2006″.

- Blu-Ray goza el apoyo de “siete de los ocho estudios mayores de Hollywood y de dos de los jugadores más grandes en la industria de la música” mientras HD-DVD se jacta “más de 41 estudios y los distribuidores que sostienen HD- DVD en el mundo”.

A pesar de todo esto, Blu-Ray anuncia: “La Asociación de Disco de Blu-Ray declaró hoy su victoria como el formato elegido en alta definición”.

Ellos se basan en el análisis de un informe: “Understanding & Solutions, Ltd, analista de mercados, anuncia un aumento continuo de la cuota del mercado para el disco de Blu-Ray en 2007, y predicen que para el 2010 virtualmente todo HD hardware óptico de disco será hardware de Blu-Ray, con todo los contenidos de película también en Blu-Ray unicamente”.

Lo que se rumorea es que HD-DVD lanzará su propia analisis de mercado, que declarará que HD-DVD corre adelante del juego si no ya sobre la línea.

Los disparos salen gruesos y rápido en uno de las guerras de formatos más interesantes de nuestro tiempo, pero sólo alguien que crea sus propios analisis de mercado podrían declarar que la guerra está llegando a su fin.

DEJE SU COMENTARIO: QUE FORMATO CONSIDERA QUE TERMINARÁ TRIUNFANDO EN LA ALTA DEFINICIÓ?

Sony sigue hablando mal del plasma, mientras sigue lanzando televisores LCD

Sony ha mostrado más investigaciónes que afirman que las televisiones de LCD son mejores que el plasma, para la alta definición, mientras se olvida de mencionar que abandonó el mercado del plasma el año pasado.

“Se terminó el debate de LCD vs. Plasma” reclama el director gerente de Sony Australia, Carl Rose, en un comunicado de prensa que tambien hace mención furtiva para la Playstation 3 y el Blu-Ray. “Consumidores y revendedores están mostrando mayor comprensión en el futuro, que esta en la alta definición”.

Qué pavadas! Cada televisión de LCD, inclusive el Sony 1080p Bravia es una porquería al lado del mejor plasma que existe. Hablo acerca del Pioneer de 50 pulgadas, PDP5000EX, el primer plasma del mundo de 50 pulgadas y 1080p. Seguro es su precio, dolares $15,000, no es exactamente algo que mamá y papá esconderán debajo del arbol de navidad como regalo, pero deja mal parado al LCD.

En particular, el LCD no es bueno para ver deporte. A pesar de todos los reclamos de fabricantes, LCD no es lo suficientemente bueno todavía. Oigo este dicho a menudo, entre personas de la industria – desde detallistas finales y calibradores profesionales hasta el tipo que instaló mi nueva antena.

Sony se apoya en que más de 100.000 televisiones de LCD fueron vendidas en Australia en en tercer cuatrimestre del 2006, comparado con apenas 40.000 plasmas. Es por eso, el comentario de Carl Rose: “Consumidores y revendedores están mostrando mayor comprensión en el futuro, que esta en la alta definición”.

Pavadas¡. Los consumidores no entienden prácticamente de nuevas tecnologías de la televisión – a veces debido a esta clase de “propaganda” de Sony. La mayoría de las personas no entienden de digital, ellos no entienden de alta definición – la mayoría ni sabe la diferencia abismal entre la televisión digital y los Foxtel Digitales. Las personas compran mas LCDs a causa de la etiqueta de precio baja y porque ellos no saben cual es mejor…Más personas compran el Honda Cívic que la Ferrari F40…entonces¿ hace eso al Civic un mejor coche porque consumidores deben saber qué es mejor?

Salga allí con sus propios ojos y juzgue cual es el mejor LCD y el mejor plasma, y que ofrece cada uno… antes de que gaste su dinero ganado con sudor. No tome este blog en cuenta, pero tampoco tome en cuenta las palabras de la gente de Sony.

El combo de LG Blu-Ray+HD DVD no esta tan bueno….

Si usted pensó que el nuevo ‘Super Multi combo’ de LG para reproducir blu-ray y HD DVD era el fin para la guerra de los formatos, piense otra vez. Esta primera unidad de la generación es tan costosa que usted podría comprar a un reproductor de Blu-Rey y otro de HD-DVD y todavía tener vuelto. ¡Increible!
Bien, por unos cuantos días, todos creimos que las guerras de los formatos en alta definición habia llegado a su fín….pero, espere…, no para todos el precio pasa desadvertido…Por supuesto, podemos también darle credito a LG. A fin de cuentas, LG es el primero en tomar este nuevo camino. Pero LG habria tenido que darse cuenta que el precio que le puso a su multi reproductor realmente hace que la compra del mismo no valga la pena…

Entonces…¿cuánto cuesta, y por qué tanta desilusión? Permítanos empezar con el precio. La unidad de LG es llamada, con muy poca imaginación, el BH100, y..hablamos de dolares $1200. ¡Eso es muy por arriba de dos Sony PS3s! O de un reproductor de blu-ray mas un reproductor de HD-DVD. Por supuesto, LG tiene todo en una sola unidad, que ocuparía menos espacio bajo la televisión. ¡Pero, a que costo!

Otra contra increíble es que no reproduce CDs. Tiene dos diodos del láser adentro – uno para DVDs standars, y el otro para HD DVD y Blu-Ray. Pero ni puede leer una audiofrecuencia uniforme de CD. Para repdroducir CDs, ellos necesitarían agregar un tercer láser, que será considerado una opción para el sucesor del BH100’s. Claramente, las consideraciones del precio limitaron a LG de incluir lo que debe ser un componente muy económico. Y sí, usted probablemente ya tiene un reproductor de compact-disc y no utilizaría su BH100 para ese propósito. Pero se da por obvio que cada reproductor de DVDs debe reproducir CDs.

Bien…ahora cuando usted pone un disco en el reproductor, el BH100 tiene que barajar los lentes para ver que disco ha ingresado, y por consiguiente, que lentes usa. Todo este movimiento de lentes hace que usted tenga que esperar 25 segundos para ver una película de Blu-Rey y 30 segundos para una película de HD DVD.

Luego, tenemos que evaluar el control de las tan manipuladass características recíprocas entre el blu-ray y el HD-DVD. Felizmente, el BH100 “aguanta” completamente todas las características recíprocas de películas de Blu-Rey, inclusive los discos blu-ray JAva. ¿Pero qué pasa con HD-DVD?Ay…La tecnología de iHD para la interacción de HD DVD no es sostenida. En vez del fantásticos gráficos y otras características recíprocas, el BH100 muestra apenas increíblemente básicos menúes. Tanto…que servirán para mostrar a sus amigos su nuevo reproductor del siglo XXI que trae menúes de los años ochenta – al menos al reproducir un HD DVD.

La carrera por un disco rigido de 1TB (1000GB) ya ha comenzado, y Hitachi va primero

Ayer, Seagate anunció que lanzará a la venta un disco de 1TB duramente en la primera mitad del año. Hoy, Hitachi quiso ser más, diciendo que liberará un disco de 1TB tres meses más temprano.

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 saldrá a la venta al por menor el primer trimestre de 2007 en un precio sugerido de dolares 399, o 40 centavos por gigabyte.

“A diferencia de Seagate, el disco Hitachi estará disponible en tres meses (no seis), estaremos mostrando un modelo de trabajo en C y además, anunciaremos un nuevo software para los fabricantes de aparatos de video digitales, que aumentarán la esperanza de vida del disco”dijo un vocero de Hitachi.

Junto con el Deskstar 7K1000 para el mercado de la venta al por menor, Hitachi tambien anunciará el CinemaStar 1TB, que tiene capacidades optimizadas específicamente diseñadas para las aplicaciones de grabación de video digital (DVR).

“Consumidores han llegado a depender de su DVRs para registrar y almacenar sus programas favoritos, y con la disponibilidad creciente de alta definición (HD) en la televisión de aire, 1TB de almacenamiento llegará a ser una necesidad. El video de alta definición requiere 4 5 veces más capacidad de almacenaje que video de definición standard y un disco de un terabyte permite lugar para almacenar fácilmente y para mantener hasta casi 250 horas de HD,” según Hitachi.

A diferencia del Seagate, que almacenará 1TB en cuatro fuentes de 250GB, de 3,5 pulgadas, el 7200 RPM Hitachi utilizará cinco fuentes de 200GB con una densidad más baja de areal. Según specificaciones de Hitachi, el nuevo disco tendrá un promedio de tiempo de busqueda de 8,7 msec

“El primer disco de un terabyte representa una hito en 50 años de fabricacion, y reafirma el liderazgo en el duro mercado de los discos rigidos, con la tecnología de más bajo costo de almacenamiento,” dijo Shinjiro Iwata, jefe de marketing de Hitachi. “En el año 51, Hitachi dirigió una nueva era para los discos, no sólo proporcionando grandes cantidades de almacenamiento económico, sino personalizando también y optimizando el disco para entregar los productos que son más listos, más durables y finalmente más útiles al consumidor”.