11.22.07
Quick Mention: Microsoft Threatens to Sue, Gets Sued
We have recently covered several rebuttals and interpretations [1, 2, 3, 4] of an interview with Bill Hilf, which follows a departure from his old role at Microsoft. Here is another new interpretation which concentrates on Microsoft’s mythical patents and litigious/legal intimidation.
Will Microsoft ever reveal what they believe to be the infringements currently enjoyed by the open source community? To hear Microsoft tell it, they already have. Meet the Emperor’s New Patent Infringements.
For the time being, the party being sued appears to be Microsoft. To make matters worse, it’s a new class action lawsuit.
The suit claims “Halo 3 does not function with the Xbox 360, and to the contrary, attempted use of Halo 3 consistently causes the Xbox 360 to ‘crash,’ ‘freeze,’ or ‘lock up’ while the game is being played.”
This is far from the first time that Microsoft gets sued over XBox 360 negligence. Examples from this year include:
- Microsoft sued over Xbox 360 “red ring of death“
- Microsoft faces second class action lawsuit over scratched discs
- Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against MS For Bricked 360s
- MS faces lawsuit over alleged Xbox 360 disc damage
Wish Microsoft luck. They are going to need it because the lawsuits above are well deserved, for hardware that was designed and finalised prematurely.
Could Microsoft’s aggression in court be attributed or compared to another social phenomenon? What about children who inherit their patents’ violent behaviour (assimilation through example)? Could Microsoft be merely venting its anger as means of retaliation and rebellion (getting even in an “unfair world”)? Is it a case of projection? Or matching and blending with the model set by a broken court/patent system? █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.